Team need players with courage, heart
As the International Team captain and a proud South African, I was thrilled to see my countrymen Dylan Frittelli and Christiaan Bezuidenhoit secure their maiden victories on the PGA Tour and European Tour recently.
I have gotten to know both players quite well and followed their golfing journey over the years, so it was a joy to see Dylan secure a wonderful victory at the John Deere Classic and Christiaan doing likewise with a great win at the Andalucia Masters.
Dylan’s breakthrough on the PGA Tour has given him a chance to play his way into the International Team.
Since his amateur days, Dylan was rated amongst the top South African players. He won at junior level, international amateur level and also collegiate level in the United States where he studied at University of Texas and contributed the winning point in the team’s win in the 2012 NCAA Championship.
I wasn’t surprised at all to see him enjoy early success on the Sunshine Tour at home before subsequently establishing himself on the European Tour where he won twice in 2017.
As you can see, his career has been trending nicely and culminating to his two-shot triumph at the John Deere Classic where he signed off with a final round 64.
Likewise, I have known Christiaan for some time. He went through a tough spell after
receiving a drug suspension for testing positive for beta blockers in 2014 which he had used to treat anxiety and a stutter after accidentally drinking rat poison when he was a child.
I remember him joining us at the Ernie Els Fancourt Foundation, which we set up way back to help develop young golfers who are less privileged and to see him come of age with his Spanish win was quite a thrill for everyone associated with our foundation, including myself.
It might be tough for Christiaan to play his way into this year’s Presidents Cup as he’s a bit behind on the points list but I have no doubt he has the potential to become one of our team’s stalwarts in the future.
Still on South African golf, it was tough to hear news that our fourtime team member, Charl Schwartzel, was taking an enforced break from competitive golf until the end of the year to recover from a wrist injury.
Charl has been one of the pillars in our team and we’ll miss his presence this December. I wish him a speedy recovery and I’m sure we’ll see him back in action very soon again.
My good friend, Louis Oosthuizen, is on course to make his fourth Presidents Cup team appearance.
Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama have looked really solid all year, with Adam enjoying two top-10s in the US Open and PGA Championship and Hideki producing some really good stuff with five top-10s and have missed only one cut all year.
As the player with the most appearances, Adam has been in eight previous teams.
It is a given that he will be one of the leaders of our pack when our guys are out on the golf course battling for the International Team’s pride and honour.
In a competitive environment, we need players who will show up with courage and heart and I really liked how Cameron Smith has responded in recent weeks after he slipped out of the top-eight bracket.
As the reigning Australian PGA Championship winner, Cameron’s presence at Royal Melbourne can help ignite the home fans to truly get behind our team which can be a huge motivating factor in our attempt to wrest the Presidents Cup from the United States.
Our top-eight players will be determined tomorrow after the BMW Championship.