Strong family values have helped Dean Burmester to keep focus while reaching for the stars, writes MICHAEL VLISMAS in Compleat Golfer.
The car stopped at a T-junction. It seemed a simple choice. Left or right? But for Greville Burmester, grandfather of European Tour winner Dean Burmester, there was far more to it.
Greville had just undergone his first bout of chemotherapy for cancer. But despite a body ravaged by this disease and weakened by the heavy medication, he told the other occupants of the vehicle they were turning left. Left towards Polokwane, where his grandson Dean was headed into the final round of the Polokwane Classic four shots off the lead.
‘They drove through the night to come to watch me,’ says Dean. ‘I was four shots behind. I wasn’t even leading the tournament. But he said they got to that T-junction and he just had a feeling.’
So Greville walked all 18 holes of that final round. And he was there to see Dean win his first professional title by four strokes in 2013. He wasn’t there to see him win his first European Tour event at this year’s Tshwane Open, but Burmester dedicated the victory to him.
Whenever Burmester thinks of what it takes to win, or how deep you sometimes have to dig within yourself, he thinks of that moment when his grandfather showed just how far you have to be willing to go to support those you love.
‘In my professional golf career that was the biggest thing for me, to see the sacrifice he made to come to watch me. My grandfather was a massive role model for me. Growing up, I spent a lot of time with him.’
People often talk about how important family is to them. But for Burmester, it’s not just the support he gets from family that makes the difference. It’s the very reason he practises so hard and plays to win.
‘Family keeps me grounded. When guys get ahead of themselves they forget where they came from and how they started. This applies to some of their sponsorships too. Investec helped me a great deal when I was still pre-qualifying and playing on the Big Easy Tour, and I’ll never forget that.
‘The reason I practise so hard is for my wife and my son. I want to give them everything they need, not only financially but in terms of values too. I pride myself on that; it comes from my parents.’
And it’s family that made the difference when Burmester sought to end a run of second-place finishes and near-misses in big tournaments and finally got the breakthrough at the Tshwane Open.
That week, at Pretoria Country Club, Burmester’s biggest challenge lay not in winning a European Tour event for the first time, but rather in dealing with the expectations of those around him who were constantly telling him it was his time.
‘Dealing with that expectation is probably one of the tougher things I’ve had to do. Self-belief is a massive thing in this game. It’s nice when people are telling you you’re going to win. But at the same time, dealing with that disappointment on the Sunday at the Joburg Open [where he was in contention before finishing tie-11th] was tough. I felt I was playing better at the Joburg Open. I couldn’t miss a shot.
‘That Sunday, a lot of people were telling me, “This is your time,” and then to not be able to do it in the first nine holes and get so frustrated on the back nine was really tough for me.
‘Then I had a lot of people at the Tshwane Open telling me how to deal with my emotions and trying to help me through it. But to be honest, my family and the support I had when my wife and son flew up, did it for me. I flew my coach up and I was able to calm myself. I was in a much better space mentally. After that final putt at the Tshwane Open, all the bottled-up frustration came out.’
Burmester was so focused during that final round that he admits he still cannot recall everything that happened.
‘It’s still a bit of a blur. Guys talk about getting in the zone and for some reason nothing bothered me that Sunday. It was like a steamroller effect. After I made that first birdie putt on the 1st green I felt like I was invincible and could birdie every hole.
‘After the bogey on 17, I was walking up to the 18th tee box and my caddie Francois said, “OK boy, let’s get this one on the fairway and enjoy the walk.” That’s why you practise – to be able to make walks like that.’
The kind of singular focus Burmester displayed comes quite easily to a man who grew up in Zimbabwe idolising his father, Mark, who played cricket for the country, to such an extent that he worked relentlessly to try to forge his own path in the cricket world.
‘It’s all I wanted to be. I trained through the winter, playing cricket all the time until I was 16 years old. I got a little frustrated when I wasn’t selected for the teams I thought I should’ve been selected for, but I probably wasn’t good enough. That was a tough pill to swallow.
‘Then I entered my first junior golf tournament in South Africa when I was 16 and ended up winning it. So I thought, maybe I’m not so bad and I can do this. By 18 I was No 1 in the province [Free State and Northern Cape] and playing SA Schools golf.’
It’s also why the practice regime of Vijay Singh resonated with a young Burmester, who watched the Fijian play at the Zimbabwe Open one year and remembers thinking, ‘If that’s what it takes to become the best in the world, what will it take just to turn professional?’
And he saw a similar focus in Gary Player, with whom he spent a day on his farm recently with the Grey College golf first team.
‘That was amazing. I learned more in one day with Gary Player than I have in my whole career. We ran up the koppie and he told us a load of stories, and we hit a few balls there. He also gave me a personal lesson and I’ve been working on what he told me and what he learned from Ben Hogan.’
Now, with a schedule that will see him compete at some of the biggest tournaments, against the top stars, Burmester feels he’s ready to take that focus and make it count at the highest level.
‘I want to play in as many Majors as I can and as quickly as I can, and get in the top 50 in the world before the end of the year, which I think is a real possibility. I used to be 86th in the world, but I was only playing on the Sunshine Tour and dabbling on the Challenge Tour, so I didn’t have a chance to play the big events to keep that world ranking.
‘But now I’m top 100 in the world and playing the second-biggest Tour and in some of the biggest events in the world.
‘Just look at Jon Rahm. He was straight out of college and he’s got one win and a bunch of top-threes and top-10s, and boom, he’s 12th in the world. That shows you what the game can do. Last year, Alex Noren was where I am now in the world and then he won three times in six starts and was 10th in the world.
‘If you play on these major Tours and take advantage, the world’s your oyster and anything can happen. Then you’re looking at playing at The Masters this time next year. That’s been a dream of mine ever since I started reading books about Bobby Jones. It’s really exciting.’
At the start of 2017, Burmester was at his very own T-junction. Then he finished fourth at the BMW SA Open and seventh at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
‘Suddenly I went from a mindset of just keeping my card to wanting to win,’ he says. ‘I knew I had two big European Tour events at home – the Joburg Open and Tshwane Open – and that it was a perfect chance for me.’
Left or right?
In his own way, Burmester didn’t take either. He just went straight ahead. And his feet haven’t touched the ground since.
MONEY MATTERS
Burmester’s Sunshine Tour Order of Merit results:
2010 – 105th (R47 066)
2011 – 86th (R59 339)
2012 – 42nd (R365 741)
2013 – 28th (R672 983)
2014 – 42nd (R364 646)
2015 – 4th (R2.81-million)
2016 – 2nd (R5.95-million)
– This article first appeared in the May issue of Compleat Golfer
