South Africa’s Dean Burmester insists there is no limit to what he believes he can do in the game and is chasing success with a clearer frame of mind, writes WADE PRETORIUS.
Numbers in golf matter. It is the information Trackman is telling players – ball speed, club speed, smash factor, launch angle, spin rate. And then there is the money list – the cash in the bank and the priority for tours around the world, back to the on-course statistics of GIRS, FIRS and more recently strokes gained. It’s a numbers game all the way back to Official World Golf Ranking.
Fans use every number available to make judgements on players. Punters use them to place bets in the hopes of cashing in when a particular player does so himself. Even journalists use them to issue verdicts on the relative levels of success and/or failure of a particular campaign.
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Burmester has seen it all. It’s been 11 years of touring the world with his world ranking peaking at 86th despite losing a playoff in the ’16 Eye of Africa PGA Championship to Jaco Van Zyl. He has played in a pair of US Opens as well as two WGCS. He has seven Sunshine Tour wins and one European Tour title (the ’17 Tshwane Open).
And here might be the number that needs to contextualise the whole subject … he is only 30. After a decade-plus on tour, he now sits at home enjoying the rare extension of family time and Compleat Golfer asks the question: ‘Where does Dean Burmester want to rank himself, and into what kind of league would he want to establish himself?’
One thing to note about Burmester is his refreshing honesty and a candour not familiar with all players who play on his level.
Before he gets to the gist of the answer, he provides context.
‘At the start of the season, my whole team and I sat down at Leopard Creek, and we just sat down and had a team meeting and we wanted to go through everybody’s role in the team,’ he says.
‘And then, you know, obviously you’re susceptible to criticism.
‘One of my things is kind of a lack of work ethic … not that I don’t work hard but that I don’t necessarily work smart all the time.’
That team meeting brought a shift in the mindset that often translates into prolonged periods of success further down the road.
Burmester tells us more: ‘Seeing that the guys are backing me … I kind of feel like I don’t have a limit.
‘You know, I’ve got to 86 in the world pretty much just on the Sunshine Tour and, you know, knowing that I can do that on such a small tour kind of gives you the confidence to believe, well, I can definitely get into the top 50 and hopefully, into the top 30 or even top 20 in the world.
‘A lot of golfers kind of peak at a later age and I’ve always been sort of slow … if you look at it, my rise hasn’t exactly been meteoric unlike a lot of other younger guys now out of South Africa … Christiaan and Brandon and Haydn [Porteous] and Zander [Lombard]. A lot of the guys have already peaked before they’re 25, you know, they’re out in Europe, winning events and playing well, where I didn’t do that. I turned pro when I was 20, scraped through the Sunshine Tour my first couple of seasons, then started to grind my way out and figure out what professional golf was all about.
Lockdown diaries: Dean Burmester
‘So, I think when I found my feet in Europe like I have, or now that I have found my feet a little bit more consistently, I think, you know, the sky is the limit. The next stop is top 50 in the world and try and get to America and play on the PGA Tour.’
So while he’s acing holes on Trackman and playing the ‘shots of his life’ in lockdown, armchair critics and those paid to make observations about the state of his game, should know what is brewing beneath the surface.
“Shot of my life. Shot of my life!”
Burmester’s 2 iron out of the rough on 17 #BMWTrackManInvitational pic.twitter.com/oxh5n123fQ
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) May 9, 2020
