Brandon Stone, who finished T67 in the WGC-Mexico Championship, was awarded the 2016-17 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit following the conclusion of the 2017 Tshwane Open.
Stone wrapped up the title despite second-placed Dean Burmester’s win at the Pretoria Country Club on Sunday.
At 23, he is the second-youngest player to win the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit behind Charl Schwartzel who was just 20 when he took the 2004-05 season’s title.
Such an honor to win the @Sunshine_Tour order of merit …truly a boyhood dream come true! ? Wouldn’t have been possible without my team ??
— Brandon Stone (@BrandonMStone) March 5, 2017
Stone’s stellar season, where he claimed the BMW SA Open and the Alfred Dunhill Championship, saw him claim the venerable Sid Brews Trophy included six other top-10 performances. They were a share of 10th in last year’s Tshwane Open, of sixth in the 2016 Dimension Data Pro-Am, second in the Investec Cup, sixth in the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, a share of second in the Lion of Africa Cape Town Open and of fourth in last month’s Joburg Open.
His final prize-money tally of R7 384 889 is the most for any season ever on the Sunshine Tour, comfortably beating the R5,599,265 won by Richard Sterne back in 2008.
Also sealing some special silverware comfortably ahead of time is Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who had sewn up the Bobby Locke Trophy for the Sunshine Tour Rookie of the Year.
Bezuidenhout won the Sunshine Tour Qualifying School last January, came second behind Stone in the BMW SA Open in January 2016, and won his maiden professional title in October when he took the Sun Fish River Sun Challenge.
He managed six other top-10 finishes, and his consistency put him more than R2-million ahead of his nearest challenger, Christoffer Blomstrand of Sweden who won the Zambia Sugar Open last year.
