The Virtual Sunshine Tour is set to make history on Sunday with its first female competitor in Casandra Hall in action.
Hall will face off against Zimbabwe’s Benjamin Follet-Smith in the sixth instalment of the virtual battle initiated by the Sunshine Tour for the nationwide lockdown.
The Johannesburg-based Hall will break new virtual ground at 3pm this Sunday in a move that builds on the pioneering efforts by the Sunshine Tour to incorporate Sunshine Ladies Tour professionals in several regular men’s tournaments last year.
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And for Pauli van Meersbergen, one of the directors on the Sunshine Ladies Tour, Sunday’s match between Hall and Follett-Smith will emphasise the game’s growing need for more mixed events.
‘I think golf is definitely starting to think a lot more out of the box, and this is another way to keep showcasing women’s golf more effectively,’ she said.
‘Looking ahead in the traditional game, when you look at what the Vic Open has done on the regular tour with men and women playing in the same tournament for equal prize money, and how we have also done that in South Africa with the Dimension Data Pro-Am and then on the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series, then you can see that more and more sponsors are interested in what mixed golf tournaments can offer. I think there is a lot of room for growth here.’
