Yet another young South African professional is breaking through in the United States, writes MICHAEL VLISMAS.
Dylan Naidoo went overseas looking for an answer. He returned with playing privileges on two Tours in addition to the Sunshine Tour.
He found his answer.
‘I went to a couple of Qualifying Schools to give myself the opportunity to test myself somewhere other than on the Sunshine Tour. I wanted to answer the question: Have I improved? Have I got to the point where I can find membership on a different Tour?’ he says.
The young Sunshine Tour star returned with status on the Mackenzie Tour and Korn Ferry Tour.
‘That was the first step in realising my game is good and, while there is still some improvement I’m working on, it is able to translate on to a world stage,’ he says.
‘It’s such a tough learning experience over there, especially the Korn Ferry Tour. It’s elite golf. Everyone from around the world played that Q-School because there was no European Tour Qualifying School this year. So it was elite competition in that sense, and I’m very proud of having made it through.
‘The American system is cut-throat. I’d say more so than the European Tour system. I played with two golfers in the final stage of the Korn Ferry Q-School who both had their PGA Tour cards the year before. It’s not easy, but that’s pro golf; if it was easy everybody would be playing. It opened my eyes to the improvements I need to make in my game, and how the level of talent out there is extremely high and the margins are so fine.’
Naidoo’s time overseas has been an eye-opening experience for a golfer who has been hailed as a potential star since his amateur days. He reinforced this when he finished third in the Sunshine Tour’s Rookie of the Year race in his debut season, behind a future European Tour and PGA Tour winner in Garrick Higgo. That already, he says, was a major turning point for him.
‘That Rookie of the Year race was so close. Garrick had a stranglehold on it, but I took a lot from being able to finish third behind Garrick and then Wilco Nienaber – two future European Tour players.’
Those are the kind of benchmarks Naidoo has studied and paid careful attention to throughout his career, and which are a by-product of something his father once said to him.
‘It was my dad who first got me into golf. He was a sportsman and he played tennis, cricket and then golf. I naturally graduated to those sports too. I was a kid who was always determined and driven to be good at what I did, so I’d want to hit cricket balls and play tennis for hours. But in those sports you need somebody else to help you out, whereas with golf I could go to the range and be there all day on my own.
‘The first time I realised that I could be quite good at golf was when I won the SA Boys U17 title. I’d played junior events and for Central Gauteng, and you think you’re good. But then one day my dad said I need to put everything I have into this game. My dad has these moments when he gives me these hard truths. At the time I’m always like, “Yeah yeah.” But then I realised he’s right. I needed to put more work into my golf.’
Naidoo went in search of the next level in his game at the University of Pretoria’s High Performance Centre, and in particular coach Llewellyn van Leeuwen.
‘I realised, with the SA Boys title, that if I put in the work I’ll get the reward. Basically, it was a realisation that if I work hard, I have enough talent to make a career out of this.’
Naidoo had a stint at the University of Arkansas, but it wasn’t the kind of fit he thought it would be.
‘I wasn’t in a good place with my game. I was still searching for it. I had a good start to my college career and then dropped off quite badly. I asked a lot of questions about that time. Was I stubborn? Was I confused? Was there mixed messaging?
‘So I came home and played amateur events for about eight months and had a bit of success. Then I decided to give the Vusi Ngubeni Q-School on the Sunshine Tour a go. I chipped in on 17 for birdie and finished on the number for my card. So I had my Sunshine Tour card, even though it was a low-ranking card at the time.’
But the next level on the Sunshine Tour would challenge Naidoo again and throw new questions his way. He made the cut at his first tournament, the Zambia Open, but then missed the next five. It wasn’t quite on the level of Justin Rose’s start to his professional career, but it certainly had the same effect on Naidoo’s psyche about where he was headed with his professional career.
‘I was asking questions like, “Is this really what I want to do? Do I have the ability to do it?” Fortunately I have a very supportive family and I have a great team of people around me. It’s a little easier to miss cuts when you have a big management company behind you.
‘It’s a bit different when it’s just you and you have a five-hour drive back from Swaziland on your own to think about yet another missed cut. I realised that something needed to change because I was missing cuts by four or five shots but while playing decent golf. I needed to make a change.’
So Naidoo started taking a deep dive into what he calls his blueprint. ‘That’s when the tide started turning. I could see significant improvement. I’ve worked with Llewellyn since I was 13, and he has been such a good coach and mentor to me. He has a very deep understanding of the golf swing. At the time we were both having our ideas questioned, but Llewellyn is great in terms of exploring a path with you. So we brought our information and thoughts to the table and developed the blueprint for my game.’
Naidoo has been refining that blueprint ever since and is particularly excited about seeing how it translates on the Sunshine Tour this summer, backed by his recent international experience and with a host of Challenge Tour co-sanctioned events to play at on South African fairways.
‘It’s fair to say I’m extremely excited to test my game here at home. A year ago I played with Jacques Blaauw at the Joburg Open and he was leading after 36 holes. It was the best putting display I’d ever seen. I had hit the ball on par with him and I missed the cut by two or three shots. I was so disheartened.
‘I went into a deep dive in putting and the short game, course strategy and understanding the maths behind course strategy. That’s been a game-changer for me too.’
Another game-changer has been the support Naidoo has managed to garner as he’s sought to take his career to this next level.
‘A lot of people like to talk, but the ones who have really put their hands up and shown their actual support are the team at National Security and Fire, and Kinesh Pather. He’s been a great sponsor and mentor to me.
‘I think I’m really enjoying the journey I’m on. I’ve chatted with Brandon Stone a lot about his journey and what’s pushed him and driven him. Another good friend of mine, Viktor Hovland, has also had a great influence.
‘We played a number of junior events together and his rise in golf has been so exponential. You just see it at that age, and then you see these guys become multiple winners.
‘Viktor has been a real case study for me with the golf swing. He’s somebody I’ve watched and tried to emulate. He’s the first golfer I’ve met who has an online coach. He saw a coach’s videos on YouTube and liked what he was doing and started working with him. I took that same direction with my putting, and I now work with somebody in France on my short game.’
There is no doubt that Naidoo’s enquiring mind and desire to study what it takes to move his game through the various levels is his biggest asset. It’s the formulation of a picture he has in his mind. Much like the modern art he’s also taken an interest in during his time overseas.
‘I love visiting museums and big cities. I enjoy science or natural history museums and I’ve taken to visiting art museums too. I’ve developed quite a love for modern art. I just think it’s such an impactful medium. It really is incredible to see what human ingenuity can result in.
‘I’ve been to The Met [The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York] and that’s now my gold standard.’
There’s no doubt Naidoo appears to be painting his own masterpiece at the moment.And it’s starting to make for a very nice picture indeed.
BEST SUNSHINE TOUR RESULTS
2016: Big Easy Tour – Observatory (1st)
2019: Sibaya Challenge (T9th)
2020: Betway Championship (T9th), Investec Royal Swazi Open (T14th), Sun Wild Coast Sun Challenge (T18th)
2021: Sunshine Tour Invitational (T21st), Vodacom Origins of Golf – De Zalze (T20th), Limpopo Championship (T25th), Dimension Data Pro-Am (T28th), Cape Town Open (T57th)
– This article first appeared in the January 2022 issue of Compleat Golfer magazine. Subscribe here!
