The 1989–90 Southern Africa Tour was the 19th season of the Southern Africa Tour, the main professional golf tour in South Africa since it was formed in 1971.

Season outline A variety of local golfers had success at the beginning of the season. South African Des Terblanche won the inaugural event, the Railfreight Bloemfontein Classic. It was his first victory on his home tour. The next tournament was the Minolta Copiers Match Play, a medal match play event, held at Sun City Golf Course. In the quarterfinals, Fulton Allem tied the course record with a 65 to defeat competitor Hugh Baiocchi. In the following two rounds Allem defeated "tournament favourite" David Frost and John Bland to win the event. Frost, however, came back and won the next event, the unofficial Nedbank Million Dollar Challenge. Baiocchi, meanwhile, won the next official tournament on the calendar, the Twee Jonge Gezellen Masters. In mid-January, the Lexington PGA Championship was held, hosted by Wanderers Golf Course. Allem opened with a course record 61 to take the lead. He would go on to win the event.

In the middle of the season, a newly turned professional from America named John Daly had much success. Daly won the seventh tournament of the year, the AECI Charity Classic by one over Northern Irishman David Feherty. Two weeks later, Daly won again at the Hollard Royal Swazi Sun Classic, defeating South African John Bland by two strokes.

At the end of the season, there was a three-horse race to win the Order of Merit among Bland, the leader, with Wayne Westner directly behind him, and Tony Johnstone in third. The top two would receive automatic entries in the 1990 Open Championship. Bland won the 11th event of the season, the Dewar's White Label Trophy, "to clinch the circuit Order of Merit title."

Schedule The following table lists official events during the 1989–90 season.

DateTournamentLocationPurse(R)WinnerOWGRpointsNotes 18 Nov Railfreight Bloemfontein Classic Orange Free State 250,000 Des Terblanche (1) 8 24 Nov Minolta Copiers Match Play Transvaal 250,000 Fulton Allem (6) 8 17 Dec Twee Jonge Gezellen Masters Cape 250,000 Hugh Baiocchi (11) 8 13 Jan ICL International Transvaal 250,000 Gavan Levenson (5) 8 20 Jan Lexington PGA Championship Transvaal 250,000 Fulton Allem (7) 8 27 Jan Protea Assurance South African Open Transvaal 280,000 Trevor Dodds (2) 8 3 Feb AECI Charity Classic Transvaal 250,000 John Daly (1) 8 10 Feb Goodyear Classic Cape 250,000 Philip Jonas (1) 8 18 Feb Hollard Royal Swazi Sun Classic Swaziland 250,000 John Daly (2) 8 24 Feb Palabora Classic Transvaal 250,000 Tony Johnstone (12) 8 3 Mar Dewar's White Label Trophy Natal 250,000 John Bland (14) 8 10 Mar Trustbank Tournament of Champions Transvaal 250,000 Trevor Dodds (3) 8 Tour Championship

Unofficial events The following events were sanctioned by the Southern Africa Tour, but did not carry official money, nor were wins official.

DateTournamentLocationPurse(R)WinnerOWGRpointsNotes10 DecNedbank Million Dollar ChallengeTransvaalUS$2,500,000 David Frost14Limited-field event

Order of Merit The Order of Merit was based on prize money won during the season, calculated in South African rand.

PositionPlayerPrize money (R)1 John Bland 180,8932 Wayne Westner 135,0943 Trevor Dodds 133,3594 John Daly 123,7045 Tony Johnstone 119,225

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