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Takudzwa Chitsiga and Rashiwe Murisa, Harare Bureau
SIX local professional golfers will tee off when the Sunshine Tour returns after the summer holidays with the Eye of Africa PGA Championships which gets underway this morning until Sunday.

The event, which began in 1923 as a match play tournament, before being converted to its current stroke play format in 1965, returns to Eye of Africa Signature Golf Estate South of Johannesburg with several international golfers taking part.

Eye of Africa boasts a prize fund of R2-million and Zimbabweans Ryan Cairns and Mark Williams, Dean Nysschen entered the tournament through exemption.

Benjamin Follet-Smith, Sheldon Steyn and Brian Gondo booked their places through the qualifiers on Monday.

The trio were part of 27 top professionals who were fighting for the 15 slots in the pre-qualifiers.

Eye of Africa was the first tournament in South Africa to be co-sanctioned by the European Tour when the 1995 Lexington PGA Championship was held at the Wanderers Golf Club and won by Ernie Els.