Burmester bags four Sunshine Tour awards
Dean Burmester walked away with the lion’s share of the awards at the Sunshine Tour Players Awards on Monday night when he pocketed four of the seven honours up for grabs.
The 27-year-old from Bloemfontein won four tournaments on the Sunshine Tour during the 2015 season, and he added to his celebrations at the awards evening with the news that he had moved into the top 100 players in the world according to the Official World Golf Ranking.
He took the Gary Player Trophy for the best stroke average of the 2015 season (69.34 over 59 rounds of tournament golf), the Media’s Player of the Year as voted by members of South Africa’s golf journalists, the Players’ Player of the Year which is an accolade from his fellow professionals, and the Commissioner’s Award, which is given by Selwyn Nathan, the Executive Director of the Sunshine Tour, to a player who has served professional golf in South Africa particularly well.
“I’m overwhelmed,” said Burmester after he came up to the podium for the fourth time during the ceremony. “It’s especially humbling to be acknowledged by the players with whom I compete all the time, and to be recognised by Mr Nathan who gives so much himself to golf in this country.”
The other awards went to George Coetzee, who won the Sid Brews Trophy for winning the 2015 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit, Rourke van der Spuy, who took the Bobby Locke Trophy for Rookie of the Year for 2015, and Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who topped the Big Easy Tour’s Order of Merit.
ANA