So, a South African golfer has won another Major. Charl Schwartzel’s sensational Masters victory follows Louis Oosthuizen’s Open triumph and, taking into account Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman and Durban-born Nick Price, SA golfers have between them captured 11 Major titles in the last 19 years.
Apart from the United States, no other nation comes close to this kind of success rate, in spite of the fact that – in terms of the numbers of registered golfers in South Africa – we are small fry.
Certainly Els just had raw talent, Immelman worked harder on his game than anyone else, Oosthuizen gained experience while attending the Ernie Els Foundation, and Charl has a father, George Schwartzel, who is a former professional himself and a swing guru who has taught his son sound basics from the age of four.
But a common thread amongst all these players, and in fact virtually every South African who has won on the PGA Tour or in Europe, is that they will all testify to the fact that the SA Golf Foundation (SAGF) made a massive difference in their golfing lives as youngsters and prepared them for the big time.
The foundation (and I wonder if there is its equal anywhere in the world) existed for 50 years before being disbanded last year, although that is a story for another day. And, run by volunteers, its function was to provide excellently-run tournaments – hundreds of them throughout the country on an annual basis – in the school holidays. And then there were the national events, all this done in A, B and C divisions, and in separate age-groups.
The youngsters carried their own bags for 36 holes a day (every week, Monday to Friday if they were up to it), parents had to keep their distance, and besides being coached in the fundamentals of golf, the competitors were taught life skills and how to respect the game and its rules and traditions, as well as their fellow competitors .
Not only did they learn to become competitive, but discipline, patience, endurance and determination were instilled in them. And, as an aside, nobody was turned away if they couldn’t afford it.
Nick Price, schooled in the equally good Rhodesian chapter of the organisation when he was a teenager, has always said if it wasn’t for the grounding he received in the foundation he would never have progressed to winning Majors and becoming number one in the world.
“My Mom used to drive me to the golf course before seven o’clock in the morning, give me a dollar – in those days enough for a pie and a Coke at lunch time – and we’d play 18 holes morning and afternoon, every day in the holidays. With all that golf you had to improve and you became a tough competitor,” he says.
And Els, Goose, Schwartzel, Oosthuizen and Immelman will all nod in agreement, the same going for fellow Masters competitors this year Tim Clark (current winner of the Players Championship, regarded as the unofficial “fifth Major”) and Rory Sabbatini who won last month’s Honda Classic on the PGA Tour.
“I remember George Schwartzel bringing me a 12-year-old Charl to join the Foundation, and telling me his son had a lot of talent,” says Johannesburg’s Ann Rycraft who was SAGF president for many years. “I thought to myself, okay, just another doting father. But Charl did turn out to be exceptionally gifted and at 13 he became the youngest ever member of the Central Gauteng under-18 team.”
For six years the foundation nurtured him, and just eight more years down the line he is the Masters champion.