EDITOR’S LETTER E ALDRICH IS OUR GOLFING ROCKET
I t’s exciting to have another excep- tional young SA prospect on the PGA Tour. We now have five ex- tremely capable players on the tour, who have each made an impact over the past 18 months and are keeping us up late on Sunday nights. The latest, Aldrich Potgieter, became a winner in just his 20th start on the PGA Tour, con- firming our high expectations of him. He’s only been a pro for two years, and unusually hasn’t bothered to use the Sunshine Tour as a steppingstone to his career. As an indication of just how young (20) and raw he is, if he tees up in the Open at Royal Portrush it will be his first appearance in a major as a profes- sional. His previous three were as an amateur, courtesy of his 2022 British Amateur triumph. Potgieter could already have won in February, having lost a playoff in the Mexico Open where his opponent Brian Campbell received an incredible stroke of good fortune. And last December he came within a whisker of winning the Nedbank Challenge at Sun City. The
Bryson DeChambeau technique Titleist Driver Robot Tests Golfer everyone loves to hate Callaway 3-wood hits bombs 3 simple wedge strategies inside 100 yards Testing 3 Srixon Drivers CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO VIEW OUR TOP SIX VIDEOS following Trevor Immelman’s Masters triumph in 2008. Higgo won in just his second PGA Tour start and reached a high of No 38 in the World Ranking in 2021, only to plummet to 339 over the next few years. Looking back at where South Afri- cans have had their first wins on the PGA Tour, it’s a remarkable but lesser- known fact that Ernie Els, Retief Goos- en, Oosthuizen and Schwartzel all did so in major championships. And Clark’s first was in The Players Championship. It’s still to be seen whether Potgieter has the allround game to perform well on the more demanding courses which host the majors. The first examina- tion will come in the 2026 Masters, for which he has qualified with his Rocket Classic triumph. Stuart McLean stuartm@morecorp.co.za
Rocket Classic in Detroit was third time lucky, and he showed his mettle by calmly delivering the title in a pres- surised five-hole sudden-death playoff. What’s intriguing about Potgieter, and makes him a potential superstar for the future, is that he’s still learning the ropes. In his rookie season on the PGA Tour, he’s playing at courses he’s never seen before – which explains nine missed cuts in 14 tournaments – but when he finds a course to his lik- ing, fitting his power game, he has the confidence to put himself into conten- tion. He’s already shot a 61 and a 62 this year, evidence that he loves going on a charge. Last year he had a 59 on the Korn Ferry Tour. Furthermore, Potgieter doesn’t appear burdened by any weight of expectation as a prodigy from a coun- try where many top golfers have felt the heavy yoke of that responsibility. Gary Player was for more than 50 years the youngest South African to win on the PGA Tour, at 22 in 1958. Then, in 2021, left-hander Garrick Higgo took that record away from him, only to now lose it four years later to Potgieter.
Higgo is another bright talent – a two-time PGA Tour winner – who we hope can gain some con- sistency, and feed off Potgieter’s momentum, as others like Tim Clark, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel did in the years immediately
YOUNGEST SA TO WIN ON PGA TOUR Player Tournament Age Alrich Potgieter 2025 Rocket Classic 20 & 9½ Garrick Higgo 2021 Palmetto Classic 22 & 1 Gary Player 1958 Kentucky Open 22 & 6 Rory Sabbatini 2000 Air Canada Champs 24 & 5 Ernie Els 1994 US Open 24 & 8
EDITOR STUART MCLEAN DESIGN ELINORE DE LISLE MEDIA SALES DANIEL EGDES (daniele@morecorp.co.za) GOLF DIGEST USA
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JULY/AUGUST 2025
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