The DP World Tour announced this Monday the first tournaments of the schedule for the upcoming season, which has been referred to as the Opening Swing. The course will start on November 21 in Australia and the main novelty is that three years later two tournaments will not be played in the same week, so a player will have the possibility to play the five that are scheduled before the end of the year.
Thus, the European Circuit will start with the BMW Australian PGA Championship from November 21 to 24, it will continue with the ISPS Handa Australian Open from November 28 to December 1 and will continue with a mini tour through Africa. From December 5 to 8, the Nedbank Golf Challenge will be played, from the 12th to the 15th the Alfred Dunhill Championship will take place at the legendary Leopard Creek and this first series will close with the Afrasia Bank Mauritius Open from December 19 to 22, just in time to return home for Christmas Eve and Christmas.
As we say, the great novelty of this year is that Australia and South Africa do not share weeks. In the last two years, the Australian PGA coincided with the Joburg Open and the Australian Open with the South African Open. This forced golfers to choose one tournament or another. Thus, this season, for example, there were six tournaments before the end of 2023, but really, at most, you could play in four. Now all five can be played, those who want to do the full tour.
On the other hand, there are fewer opportunities for players with a poor category, for example those who do not finish among the top 116 in the Race to Dubai this year. In previous years, as there were two tournaments, they had more opportunities to play, but this year, with all those who enter by ranking from Australia and South Africa, the places will be greatly reduced.
The other novelty is that the Joburg Open and the South African Open disappear from the calendar and the Nedbank Golf Challenge appears on that date, which until now was played weeks before the Dubai Final. The Sun City tournament, which will return to the Gary Player Country Club, will be the sweet treat at the end of the year, with a prize pool of six million dollars, while the rest do not reach two. As for Joburg and South Africa, we will have to see if they find another place at the beginning of 2025. It should not be ruled out, in the case of the South African Open, that they place it in the Back Nine. The DP World Tour already expressed its intention to give more category to the national opens and none has more history than that of South Africa. It has been celebrated since the 19th century.
