JOHANNESBURG – Nic Henning is back on the Sunshine Tour this week and chasing a new goal as he tees it up in the Vodacom Origins of Golf at the Parys Golf and Country Estate.
After several years in which he drifted away from the professional game into other businesses and has only occasionally played in tournaments, the 49-year-old Henning is now considering a second career on the senior tour.
“I’m 49 now and I can’t compete with the 20-year-olds anymore. I’ve been doing a few other things outside of playing golf. I’m in business with a few friends, and I’m also working as a golf promoter at Steyn City Golf Club. So I have a few things on my plate.
“But I’m trying to keep myself fit and healthy, and hopefully in about eight months time I’ll be out on the seniors tour.”
During the peak of his career Henning beat future Open champion and Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke in a playoff to win the 1999 Vodacom Players Championship at Royal Cape Golf Club, and in 2000 he finished tied 17th in the World Golf Championship American Express Championship.
In 2015, even the Daily Mail newspaper in the United Kingdom reported on how Henning, then ranked 1 555th in the world, opened with a 62 on the West Course at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club to lead the first round of the Joburg Open.
In 2008 Henning was involved in a car accident after taking his mother for lunch on Mother’s Day.
“Apparently I blacked out and veered across the road. I had a head-on collision with an oncoming car and then careened through a boundary wall,” he said at the time. He escaped with nothing more than a few bruises and a sore left leg. “I kept thinking about what could have happened. About all the things I still wanted to achieve.”
With a senior career now ahead of him, Henning may well still get that opportunity.