The Sunshine Tour moves to the Euphoria Golf and Lifestyle Estate this week for the eighth playing of the Limpopo Championship – an event which has become a fascinating one to follow.

It was co-sanctioned by the Challenge Tour (now the HotelPlanner Tour) in 2020, 2021 and 2022, and it’s a pity that it didn’t retain that status, at least for the sake of opportunities it opened up for Sunshine Tour regulars.

The first winner was JC Ritchie in 2019, and he took advantage of his second consecutive win in 2020 to eventually play his way all the way on to the DP World Tour.

Other notable winners include Brandon Stone, who won in 2021, and Deon Germishuys, who set the tournament record of 22-under-par 266. Mateusz Gradecki of Poland is the only non-South African to have won the tournament, taking the title in the last year of the co-sanctioning, 2022.

In this year’s field, the presence of Kyle de Beer, fresh off his maiden Sunshine Tour win last week in Rwanda, seems compelling. That’s even taking into account that it’s often difficult for a player to go back-to-back, especially after a maiden win. However, De Beer has been playing at a high level ever since turning pro, it’s entirely possible that he will ride his momentum to a challenging total at Euphoria.

The quality of George Coetzee, who is grinding his way through an attempt to return to the kind of form which made him a perennial contender on the DP World Tour, is also not easily overlooked.

The same applies to Jacques Kruyswijk, who, at his best can build up a head of steam which makes him seem almost unstoppable.

Two players who have been playing well for a long tome now, and who are chasing maiden victories on the Sunshine Tour, are Nikhil Rama and Graham van der Merwe. Either could break through any day now.