Sunshine Tour transforming SA golf in honour of Papwa Sewgolum

As the Sunshine Tour tees off in its first event of 2023 on Thursday at the Cape Town Open at Royal Cape Golf Club, one of the newest initiatives, the Papwa Sewgolum Class for the 2022/2023 season, will be ushered onto the circuit.

The Cape Town Open marks the start of a four-week stretch of tournaments co-sanctioned with the European Challenge Tour in South Africa.

The DP World Tour and Sunshine Tour's partnership remains strong and South African golfers are reaping the rewards and opportunities.

The Papwa Sewgolum Class, which provides golfers of colour more support, honours the late Sewgolum, who hailed from Durban and became the first golfer of colour to win a title in South Africa - winning the Natal Open in 1963.

In 1965, Sewgolum defeated the great Gary Player to win his second Natal Open title but made headlines around the world when he was forced to accept his trophy outside of Durban Country Club, as they did not allow people of colour in the clubhouse.

Sewgolum made five Open Championship appearances, which included a 13th-place finish at the 1963 Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club.

Within a year of his second Natal victory, Sewgolum was banned by the apartheid government from playing golf or even entering a golf course as a spectator. He would die a pauper at the age of 48.

The Sunshine Tour has finally ensured a clear pathway for disadvantaged professional golfers in its circuit, a demographic that is not very prevalent and represented in South African golf.

After 28 years of democratic freedom, South African black golfers haven't made the strides other sporting codes have achieved. The last South African of colour to qualify for any major was Sunshine Tour golfer James Kamte, who played in the 2009 US Open