Month: June 2021

Louis de Jager has secured himself a place in his first Major after successfully qualifying for the 149^th Open at Royal St George’s.

The Sunshine Tour campaigner was one of 12 golfers from a field of 288 who qualified at various venues in England.

De Jager posted rounds of 67 and 70 at West Lancashire to finish second in his Final Qualifying tournament and thereby book his spot for the 11-18 July showpiece.

“This is amazing. It’s going to be my first Major and I don’t think there could be a better one to start off with. I know Ben Curtis won at Royal St George’s in his first time playing The Open so I think that is a good omen,” said De Jager.

“I am not very familiar with the course, so I will do some research and watch some YouTube videos of Darren Clarke’s win.

“I actually made a 9 on the 11^th in the second round. I spoke to myself and said I need to show a little bit of character. I had come so far and had been playing some good golf today. I birdied two of the last three including the last hole so I was quite pleased to be finished with a little breathing space.”

In what has already been a year of many firsts for Garrick Higgo, the Sunshine Tour’s latest international star is now looking forward to yet another – a debut at the Olympic Games.

Higgo will partner Christiaan Bezuidenhout as South Africa’s men’s Olympic golf team at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

It is a proud moment for the young star, who has celebrated playing in Majors for the first time, and winning his first PGA Tour event.

“It will be awesome. Anytime I can represent South Africa is a massive honour. And it will be awesome playing with Christiaan. I know both him and his caddie very well,” Higgo said as he prepared to play in his first tournament as a PGA Tour member in this week’s Travelers Championship.

Before Tokyo, Higgo plans to soak up every bit of the experience of being a PGA Tour member.

“It’s pretty cool. I watched all these events as a kid. I can’t wait to play every event on the PGA Tour now. I don’t need any convincing. I’ve noticed that the depth on the PGA Tour is unreal. Anyone can win.”

But one of the strengths of Higgo’s game, and what has underpinned his rapid rise, is an ability to not become overwhelmed by the challenge he faces in any given week on Tour.

“I always go into a week wanting to play my game, and to just see what happens. I treat each event the same. I don’t make it a bigger thing and just go about my business.”

Higgo also paid tribute to the role of Gary Player in his life and career.

“I met Gary when I was about eight or nine. They have a holiday home in Plettenberg Bay where I grew up. I used to play and practice there, and when he was there over the December holidays I’d play nine holes with him. His mom died when he was nine, the age I was when my dad passed away. So we have that connection. It’s real and amazing. Before all the good things happened to me, we still had that connection, and would’ve had it even if all these good things didn’t happen.

“We’ve always stayed in touch. He calls me a lot and he’s been a big part of why I’ve won a lot and the mental aspect of the game.”

And as one of the front-line players of a younger generation of Sunshine Tour stars now making waves internationally, Higgo says he’s looking forward to being joined on the PGA Tour by more South Africans.

“I’d love to have all of them out here every week. I can’t wait for that. Hopefully it happens soon. When you look at the guys on the Sunshine Tour, their games are definitely good enough. It would be awesome to have more of them out here.” – Michael Vlismas

Louis Oosthuizen insisted he had no regrets as he finished second in a Major Championship for the sixth time at the 2021 U.S. Open.

Louis Oosthuizen made a spectacular closing eagle at Torrey Pines Golf Club to take a share of the lead heading into the final round of the 2021 U.S. Open Championship.

Louis Oosthuizen is certain he knows what he needs to do to claim a second Major Championship after putting himself within one shot of the lead heading into the weekend at the 2021 U.S. Open Championship.

Sunshine Tour rising star Garrick Higgo had just won the Palmetto Championship at Congaree and was being interviewed by CBS’s Jim Nantz on the 18th green. His mom, Susan, who had flown in Thursday, was FaceTiming relatives back home in South Africa.

Everything was moving so fast, and then Nantz announced to the crowd that by winning – by one over a six-some of players that included 54-hole leader Chesson Hadley (75) – Higgo, 22, had just secured PGA TOUR membership through the end of the 2023 season.

Oh, and a spot in the Masters Tournament next year, too. Susan gasped, then laughed.

For Higgo, a lefthander with a winning smile who had won twice in his last three starts on the European Tour, life had just changed dramatically.

“I’m just proud of the way I hung in there,” he said in his virtual press conference after posing with the trophy on the 18th green. “It was tough all the way from the start. Definitely didn’t have my A game in terms of off the tee, but I like that sometimes. I like not having to play perfect golf. I enjoy scrambling and making a couple putts, which I did, which was awesome.”

None was bigger than his par save from 9 1/2 feet after driving into the trees on 17.

Gary Player, who had told him before the round not to pay too much attention to what everyone else was doing, called to congratulate him after the press conference was over.

Player knew exactly the winding road Higgo had taken to get here. When he was 9, he and his two siblings and their parents were in a car accident that took the life of their father, Guillermo. Player, who had lost his mom when he was that age, wrote a letter and began to take Higgo under his wing.

Higgo had learned the game from his dad from the age of 2. They played in Pecanwood, in the North West Province of South Africa, less than an hour from their home in Johannesburg. Garrick was the golfing sibling, and his love of the game brought him closer to his father.

“He was a very good cricketer,” he said of Guillermo. “He was 6’10” I think, so he was really, really big. My uncle is like 6’11” so, yeah, we’re a big family. I’m not that big. My brother is very big, though. … My earliest memories would just be, when I was really, really little, I would just go with him. I just really loved golf. I loved going with him. It was kind of our thing.”

The family recovered, and all are doing well. Susan is an engineer. Older brother Michael and younger sister Calis are both in school back home. She’s studying fashion, he business. Higgo, who says they all support one another in their endeavors, kept playing golf after the accident, and his game improved.

He played for the International Team in the 2017 Junior Presidents Cup, and captain Trevor Immelman was impressed. “He just had a calmness about him that exceeded his age,” he told PGATOUR.com recently. (Higgo now seems likely to be on Immelman’s 2022 Presidents Cup Team at Quail Hollow.)

Still, Higgo has freely admitted he was never the best amateur. There were other players, even others in South Africa, like the long-hitting Wilco Nienaber, who could beat him on any given day. He went to America for college – the yardage book in his back pocket still says UNLV – but stayed only two semesters before turning pro in his sophomore year.

His equanimity and cheerful nature, plus hard work, saw him through the transition.

“You can’t tell if he’s shooting the lights out or playing poorly,” said his caddie, Nick Cavendish-Pell. “He’s just very calm out there. Very levelheaded guy.”

He won the Tour Championship on the Sunshine Tour. He won twice on the European Tour, both tournaments on Spain’s Canary Islands, then ventured to America in advance of the PGA Championship. His agents, who live at Sea Island, set him up in a rental house there and introduced him to TOUR players like Harris English, Zach Johnson and Keith Mitchell.

“A bunch of good guys,” Higgo said.

He didn’t have far to drive to get to the PGA at Kiawah, where he finished T64. He went back to Sea Island to keep practicing, and kept his head down as he played from behind all week at Congaree.

And now this – changing everything.

“I mean, my dream’s always been to play on the PGA TOUR permanently,” Higgo said to the question of where he’ll play, “so at the moment, I’ll focus on that, see if I can keep going.”

The interview with Nantz, the Teams talk with the writers, and the phone call from Player were all over, and Higgo sped off to catch the TOUR’s 8:30 p.m. charter flight to California.

The 121st U.S. Open, his third TOUR start and second major, awaits. – PGA Tour

Alex Haindl claimed his fourth victory on the Sunshine Tour when he won the SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun City at the Gary Player Country Club on Friday.

Haindl took a two-stroke lead into the final round of a tournament he led from day one, and held on to win by a single stroke over Zambia’s Madalitso Muthiya and Jaco Ahlers on seven under par, closing with a 73.

“I’m delighted. I kind of came into the week with a bit of a mission to at least have a top three finish. I’m very happy to have won, especially on a golf course like this one,” said Haindl.

But it took all of his resolve to do so. After a strong start where Haindl birdied three of his first four holes, the Bloemfontein golfer bogeyed the tough eighth hole and then hit it in the water on the par-five ninth on his way to a double bogey that handed Muthiya the lead.

“I had a great start, but to be honest I didn’t get too excited because I’ve played golf way too often to know that on a course like this one, somewhere something is going to happen,” said Haindl.

“On the ninth I laid up but I was in the semi-rough, and I don’t know if I had a mud ball or something but my third shot came out absolutely horrible and went straight into the water. It didn’t bother me that Madalitso was leading going into the back nine though, because again, I just know this game and this course.”

Muthiya birdied the 10^th but then ran into trouble of his own with a double bogey and bogey in his next two holes that again opened the door for Haindl.

“I just tried to keep it solid on the back nine. It was playing tough and the pins were extremely tricky, so I just tried to keep things simple. Any win is nice, but a win on this golf course, which I’ve never really felt suits my game, makes it a lot more special.” – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour

Alex Haindl will take a two-stroke lead into Friday’s final round of the SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun City as he seeks to claim his first Sunshine Tour victory in three years.

Haindl signed for a second round of 69 at the Gary Player Country Club on Thursday, dropping only one shot in his round and making a good birdie at the difficult par-four eighth hole as he climbed to eight under par overall.

“It’s the perfect place to be. Hopefully I can keep it up and come out on top,” he said.

His nearest challenger is Jaco Ahlers, who posted a 67 to see him climb to six under par. Zambia’s Madalitso Muthiya is still in the hunt on five under par following a 69.

Haindl has been incredibly solid at the top of the leaderboard since the first round as he looks to finally overcome a long struggle with a back injury and add to his three Sunshine Tour titles to date.

“This was really a nice follow-up round to my opening round,” he said. “I tried to approach the golf course in the same way, but I actually felt like I hit it better today. I gave myself a lot of chances, but I left a few putts out there.”

The single bogey on his scorecard was another source of confidence for Haindl, who in 2018 had to undergo a spinal fusion to correct a previous surgery and which has him playing on a medical exemption this year.

“I’m happy that the work I’ve been putting in is coming together. It has been a while since my last win, and it’s good to be in contention again and playing better. Let’s be honest, when it’s going bad, this is the hardest game in the world. But when I was working on my game and practising at home, there were signs of improvement that give you confidence, even though there were times when I had a lot of pain and struggled to move.

“Only one bogey on this golf course is pleasing because limiting your mistakes here is key. But I’ve been doing a lot of things well for the past two days, and I’ve been putting the ball in the right places. That birdie on the eighth was a real bonus because I wasn’t taking all the chances that came my way, and then to make a 15-footer for birdie there was very pleasing.”

Behind him, Ahlers finds himself in contention going into a final round for his second tournament in succession. His 74 in the final round of the recent Dimension Data Pro-Am to relinquish his shot at that title will no doubt still rankle with him, and Friday’s final round offers the perfect chance to make amends. – Michael Vlismas

Photo: Carl Fourie/Sunshine Tour