THE MAJORS
South Africa’s Major Drought
ers to continue mak- ing a living in South Africa and not push themselves by going abroad. “You need to fight for your place on any international tour. And, in many cases, the fact we haven't seen a major
THRISTON LAWRENCE
has won six times on the DP World Tour
in the past five years,
but has only had one Top- 10 in 10 major appearances.
winner from South Africa in so long comes down to comfort levels at home.” Els, who won two US Opens in 1994 and 1997, plus the Open Championship in 2002 and 2012, recalls that when he was playing as a junior at Kempton Park Golf Club in the 1980s, at the back of his mind he was already competing at a major. “Gary definitely has a point when he says that our courses are set up too easy,” Els says. “When I play at home, I look around the range and facilities and I must admit that we played in tougher conditions in the early ‘90s than the guys do today. I feel the greens are way too soft, too slow, and there is no substantial rough.” The Big Easy contends that the majority of SA courses used for tourna- ments haven’t embraced the modern era in terms of length. He is of the view that we need to relook at our course set-ups going forward. Player references the fact that we had two of our most promising young golfers, Casey Jarvis (23) and Aldrich Potgieter (22), competing at the Masters this year. “When they teed off at Augus- ta National, I was sure they were going to experience something they never knew about.” Both players missed the cut. Jarvis, this year’s SA Open cham- pion, shot 77-75 and Potgieter 84-75. Jarvis to his credit though did bounce back at Royal Birkdale in the Open where he finished T-6 in only his fourth major appearance. It was the first Top-10 by a South African since Thris- ton Lawrence was fourth in the 2024 Open at Royal Troon. GolfRSA CEO Grant Hepburn be- lieves every generation is different and it’s not useful comparing past successes to our current struggles in the majors. “I don’t think the current crop of tour players are any less talented or driven,” he says. “However, what has happened
Gary Player and Ernie Els espouse reasons why South Africa is no longer producing major champions. BY GRANT SHUB
ERNIE ELS WILL BE 57 IN October, and he remains the last South African to win a
many of them. In recent seasons we have seen Luis Carrera win with 30-under over 72 holes at Irene CC, Danie van Tonder with 27-under at Pecanwood, and Mat- teo Manassero with 26-under at Glen- dower, one of our more challenging championship layouts. “Everybody has a different opin- ion on what a championship course is,” says Player. “I’ve played more of them than anybody in this country so I should know. For argument’s sake, when the Sunshine Tour play each year at the Links at Fancourt, our toughest course, they never put them off the back tees. There is no tournament I played anywhere in the world that they didn’t use the back tees.” Els admits he’s baffled that we haven’t had a new major champion since Schwartzel won the Masters in 2011. “In the broader context we have a great development programme,” he says. Els notes that getting onto the PGA Tour has become increasingly difficult and, owing to the current climate and success of the Sunshine Tour, it has become comfortable for our pro golf-
major championship. Think about that. Only three South African golfers under the age of 50 are major champions, and the youngest of them is 42-year-old Charl Schwartzel. What has happened to the genera- tion that followed in the footsteps of Els, Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman, Louis Oosthuizen and Schwartzel? Why haven’t they stepped up, or are we expecting too much of our more recent golfing stars? After a glorious two decades from 1992 to 2012 in which six of our golfers won 12 majors, a remarkable win ratio of 15 percent, we have gone 56 majors without a solitary success since Els lifted the claret jug at Royal Lytham in 2012. Gary Player, who claimed nine majors in a 20-year span of supremacy between 1959 and 1978, and won 160 professional events on six continents, believes that a reason we haven’t had a major champion for so long is that the tournament setups in South Africa are too easy, with low scoring the norm in
24 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2026
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