The best little golf country in the world
The playing of the 151st Open at Royal Liverpool, colloquially known as Hoylake, puts the spotlight on a claim made in my book, The Sunshine Boys, that South Africa is “the best little golf country in the world.”
The Open, as the Royal & Ancient insists it should be called, but correctly the British Open, the staging of which gave rise to many national Open championships, including those of South Africa, America and Australia, each year reminds of the exalted performances of golfers from the country at the southern end of Africa.
South Africa, a nation with fewer golfers than some American states, has won The Open 11 times; the names of Bobby Locke, Gary Player, Nick Price (included because he played as a member of the Sunshine Tour and, in fact, was born in Durban), Ernie Els and Louis Oosthuizen etched onto the plinth of the Claret Jug, or the Golf Champion Trophy as it is inscribed, which has been presented to the Champion Golfer of the Year since 1872.
Locke’s name appears four times, Player’s thrice, Els’ twice, and Price and Oosthuizen each once.
However, much as the staging of The Open each July recalls great deeds of the past it now also carries a worrying codicil. Thanks to Ashleigh Buhai’s gritty victory in last year’s Women’s Open at Muirfield, South Africa has a recent Major winner but has not a men’s Major winner since Ernie Els at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 2012.
The 11-year span between Majors since Bobby Locke won South Africa’s first at Royal St George’s in 1949 is easily the longest break between men’s Majors.
In the interim many keepers of the legacy created by Locke and Player have ascended the podium. Els’ last Open pushed his tally to four and shortly before him Louis Oosthuizen (The Open, St Andrews, 2010) and Charl Schwartzel (US Masters, Augusta, 2011) seemed destined to add to their country’s tally of Majors.
Oosthuizen (unsurprisingly dubbed King Louis) accomplished one of the most dominant performances this century by winning by seven strokes. He achieved his victory on Nelson Mandela’s 92nd birthday (18 July) on the 150th anniversary of the old championship always staged on linksland – as it was at the start.
Schwartzel became the first Masters champion to have birdied holes 69, 70, 71 & 72, but was not again “right in the mix” of a Major. Oosthuizen, on the other hand, often contended and, going into this year’s championship, held the unenviable record of a “Grand Slam”, of sorts, by having finished second in all four Majors. He twice lost in sudden-death play-offs – to Bubba Watson in the 2012 Masters after the American left-hander pulled off a miraculous second shot off the pine straw at the 10th and to eventual winner Zach Johnson (Marc Leishman also made sudden-death) on his return to St Andrews in 2015.
Possessor of one of the best swings in modern golf Oosthuizen seemed the one most likely to give South African another men’s Major but when, in 2022, he and Schwartzel accepted more money than they could ever win in the remainder of their careers by joining LIV it seemed a concession that he felt his chances of again winning one of the Big Four had declined.
Branden Grace’s record and his composure under pressure marked him as a possible Major man, but he too went to LIV which, whatever spin was put on it, inevitably had a negative impact on his, and the other players’, ability to be competitive in Majors.
South Africa, thanks to excellent junior programmes in all the provinces and Golf RSA representative squads churns out a continuous array of outstanding youngsters who raise hopes that the next great “Saffer” might soon be raising in victory one of the world of golf’s four most desired pieces of silverware.
Recently Christo Lamprecht became the third South African in six years to win the (British) Amateur Championship (the third in four given the missed Covid years) after Jovan Rebula (Ernie Els’s nephew) and Aldrich Potgieter.
Names have flickered in the cosmos of golf – Brandon Stone, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Erik van Rooyen, Dylan Frittelli, Justin Harding – but none achieved the intensity of Els and Retief Goosen.
Recently there have been promising moments from Garrick Higgo, the first in a number of years to win on both the European and American tours, while Wilco Nienaber probably drew more attention for his long-hitting than was good for him.
Other recent top amateurs Casey Jarvis and Jaden Schaper are still finding their way in the pro game and “in the circles” it is said that Christiaan Maas, presently at college in the States, may be the one to watch.
South Africa’s most recent winner of a top-level tournament is Thriston Lawrence, at 78 currently South Africa’s highest ranked player on the OWGR – a number which, given the country’s previous presence on the list, is in itself a little alarming.
Lawrence won the BMW International in Germany in June, his 4th DP World Tour title, and his resumé includes the SA Amateur in 2013 and 2014, the Lytham Trophy in England as well as being named the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year for 2022. He has flown under the media hype but could he be the one given the axiom that a player has to know how to win?
As to the contention that South Africa is the best little golf country in the world consider the facts.
Ten Southern African players have captured 28 Major championships, 16 Senior Majors, won the World Cup five times and the Dunhill Cup twice.
Golfers from the southern tip of Africa have won 129 US PGA Tour titles, 195 European Tour, now DP World Tour, titles (and five; Bobby Locke, Gary Player, Nick Price, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen have been inducted in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
South Africans have won:
11 British Opens
5 US Opens
5 US Masters
4 US PGAs
1 US Women’s PGA
1 Du Maurier Classic
1 Women’s British Open
9 – Gary Player (3 British Opens, 3 US Masters, 2 US PGA, 1 U.S. Open)
4 – Bobby Locke (4 British Opens)
4 – Ernie Els (2 US Opens, 2 British Opens)
3 – Nick Price (2 US PGAs, 1 British Open)
2 – Sally Little (1 US Women’s PGA, 1 Du Maurier Classic)
2 – Retief Goosen (2 US Opens)
1 – Trevor Immelman (1 US Masters)
1 – Louis Oosthuizen (1 British Open)
1 – Charl Schwartzel (1 US Masters)
1 – Ashleigh Buhai (1 Women’s British Open)
The timeline is:
1. 1949 British Open, Royal St George’s (Locke)
2. 1950 British Open, Royal Troon (Locke)
3. 1952 British Open, Royal Lytham & St Annes (Locke)
4. 1957 British Open, St Andrews (Locke)
5. 1959 British Open, Muirfield (Player)
6. 1961 US Masters, Augusta (Player)
7. 1962 US PGA, Aronimink GC Pennsylvania (Player)
8. 1965 US Open, Bellerive CC, St Louis (Player)
9. 1968 British Open, Carnoustie (Player)
10. 1972 US PGA, Oakland Hills, Michigan (Player)
11. 1974 US Masters, Augusta (Player)
12. 1974 British Open, Royal Lytham & St Annes (Player)
13. 1978 US Masters, Augusta (Player)
14. 1980 LPGA, Jack Nicklaus GC, Ohio (Little)
15. 1988 Classique Du Maurier, Vancouver GC (Little)
16. 1992 US PGA, Bellerive CC, St Louis (Price)
17. 1994 US Open, Oakmont CC, Pennsylvania (Els)
18. 1994 British Open, Turnberry (Price)
19. 1994 US PGA, Southern Hills CC, Tulsa (Price)
20. 1997 US Open, Congressional CC, Washington DC (Els)
21. 2001 US Open, Southern Hills CC, Tulsa (Goosen)
22. 2002 British Open, Muirfield (Els)
23. 2004 US Open, Shinnecock Hills, Long Island NY (Goosen)
24. 2008 US Masters, Augusta (Immelman)
25. 2010 British Open, St Andrews (Oosthuizen)
26. 2011 US Masters, Augusta (Schwartzel)
27. 2012 British Open, Royal Lytham & St Annes (Els)
28. 2022 Women’s British Open, Muirfield (Buhai)
16 Senior Majors:
9 – Gary Player (3 Senior PGA Championships, 3 Senior British Opens, 2 US Seniors Opens, 1 Senior Players Championship).
1 each – Bobby Verwey (1991 British Senior Open), John Fourie (1992 British Senior Open), Simon Hobday (1994 US Senior Open), Denis Watson (2007 Senior US PGA), Mark McNulty (2007 The Tradition).
According to Golf RSA’s latest stats South Africa has a total of just 127 582 affiliated golfers – i.e. golfers who belong to 468 clubs. In truth the number is probably nearer 450 000 to 500 000 as many regular golfers do not join clubs.
The all-time list of Major winners is obviously dominated by Americans (3 of the Majors are played on American soil) with the Scots and the English boasting good numbers built in the formative years of, especially, The Open.
The obvious comparison with South Africa is Australia.
According to the latest list I could find (2021/2022) Golf Australia’s participation report reveals that more than 2.7-million Aussies play golf (5 times more than South Africa), with each state and territory experiencing significant club membership growth.
Sixteen Australian golfers have claimed 30 Majors. Jim Ferrier, often overlooked in the annals, was Australia’s first Major champion (he won the 1947 US PGA) and Cameron Smith, who defends the Claret Jug at Royal Liverpool this week, the most recent.
Karrie Webb, one of the greatest woman golfers ever, like Gary Player for South Africa, adds considerable weight to the Australia’s list. However the list of women’s Majors is problematic in that some events that were considered Majors are no longer and there are currently five; as opposed to the men’s four.
Webb has seven; the Du Maurier Classic (1999), the Kraft Nabisco Championship (2000, 2006), the US Women's Open (2000, 2001), the LPGA Championship (2001) and the Women's British Open(2002). Jan Stephenson (3), Minjee Lee (2) and Hannah Green (1) added six to the list.
Peter Thomson leads the Australian men’s list. Thomson is 14th on the all-time list of men's major winners, having won the Claret Jug at The Open five times in 12 years from 1954 onwards.
Other men from down under are Greg Norman (2) and David Graham (2) with Smith, Jason Day, Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy, Steve Elkington, Ian Baker-Finch, Wayne Grady, Kel Nagle and Jim Ferrier each having one.
So, as the record shows, South Africa is easily the best little golf country in the world… but it is time we won another.