The 2026 Road to Mallorca gets underway this week, with the SDC Open at Zebula Golf Estate & Spa the first of four co-sanctioned HotelPlanner Tour events with the Sunshine Tour. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the season-opener in South Africa…
The 2026 Road to Mallorca starts here
It all starts this week. Over the next ten months, players will compete for Road to Mallorca Ranking points at each of the 30 events on the 2026 schedule. At the end of the season, the leading 15 players on the Rankings will earn themselves a life-changing DP World Tour card for the 2027 Race to Dubai. Who will get their promotion campaign off to the perfect start in South Africa?
Unsure of how the Road to Mallorca works? Read our complete guide.
Co-sanctioned
South Africa plays host to the opening event on the HotelPlanner Tour for the seventh successive year, with the SDC Open the first of four co-sanctioned events between the HotelPlanner Tour and the Sunshine Tour. It’s the third straight year the SDC Open has been the venue for the season-opener, with the leading players from the Sunshine Tour joining the 156-man field.
The Sunshine Tour season began in May last year at the FBC ZIM Open and will conclude in March at The Courier Guy PLAY-OFFS DNI Tour Championship presented by RMB, hosted at De Zalze Golf Course. Herman Loubser is currently third on their Order of Merit, after recording a win and three second-place finishes in a six-week stretch last year. He arrives at Zebula as the leading player in the field from their standings.
Zebula Golf Estate & Spa
Zebula Golf Estate & Spa will this year host a HotelPlanner Tour event for a fifth time having made its debut on the Road to Mallorca back in 2022. Recognised as one of the most renowned areas in the world for golf, Zebula Golf Estate & Spa is situated within the Limpopo Province in Mabula, around two-and-a-half hours north of Johannesburg. The course, designed by Peter Matkovich, incorporates its surrounding environment and local nature within its 18-holes.
With sightings of wild animals a regular occurrence, players can expect to see zebra, giraffes, blue wildebeest, impala and much more.
Previous winners
Clément Sordet was the first winner of the SDC Open in 2022, before JJ Senekal secured an emotional victory on home soil the following year. In 2024, Rhys Enoch produced four successive rounds of 66 to come out on top and in 2025 South African Daniel van Tonder produced a stunning final day fightback to secure a first HotelPlanner Tour win.
Sordet, Senekal and Enoch tee it up at Zebula this week, with all three players looking to become the first two-time winner of the event.
A chance at promotion
Interestingly this week, two players have the opportunity to seal promotion to the DP World Tour. Due to both players missing part of the 2025 Road to Mallorca, Denmark’s Jonathan Gøth-Rasmussen and German Hurly Long have one extra tournament to gain the required points that would’ve seen them graduate on last year’s Rankings.
Gøth-Rasmussen is chasing 99 points this week, having ended the 2025 season 99 points outside the 20th and final promotion place. A top four finish at Zebula would see him achieve a first graduation from the HotelPlanner Tour. For Long, the equation is much more simple. A breakthrough win this week would guarantee his place on Golf’s Global Tour. Both players would earn Category 15a status.
