Compleat Golfer’s playing editor opens up on an important life decision.
The past few years have been the most challenging of my career, and it’s not even something that can be disputed. I’ve never been challenged so much as I have over this time period. And while I have had some amazing results, I haven’t felt comfortable. I haven’t felt like myself. I just haven’t been Brandon.
For the past three years there’s been a massive void in my life. And upon reflection, that void has been spending time in South Africa – or rather, the lack of doing so.
Since 2019, when my wife and I moved to the UK, I never truly felt at ‘home’. Anette and I absolutely loved London. It’s one of the most incredible cities in the world. It also made travelling for the DP World Tour that much easier for me. But no matter how amazing London was, it was never home. It wasn’t Centurion. It wasn’t South Africa. It wasn’t in my blood.
Every time we’d come back to South Africa for tournaments I could feel myself relax. I could feel that my soul was happy. While South Africa is by no means perfect, it is home. And being South African is something I hold dear to my heart.
After many conversations with my wife, family, team and friends we decided it was time to come home. It was time to put my roots back where it all began. It was time for me to spend my off weeks playing golf with my friends at Centurion, Pretoria Country Club and Royal Johannesburg.
Having made that decision, I could feel my heart being at peace. But, having said all that, there’s no time to relax.
We’ve been given an incredible opportunity to win on the DP World Tour once again. The relationship between the Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour continues to grow. That relationship has resulted in us having over 10 DP World Tour and Challenge Tour events. That is astounding both in terms of numbers and opportunities.
So it’s time to get things back on track. It’s time for Brandon to come back. But most importantly, it’s time to start winning some golf tournaments again. So let’s go to work.
– This column first appeared in the December 2022 issue of Compleat Golfer magazine.
