Only months after plumbing the depths of despair, Stacy Bregman, one of South Africa’s leading women golfers, is scaling the heights again, writes LALI STANDER in Compleat Golfer.
‘Bregman is golf’s Jekyll and Hyde,’ says touring partner and friend Nicole Garcia. Determined. Unwavering. Driven. Focused. Ambitious. That’s the on-course Stacy.
Life of the party. Bubbly. Funny. Always up for a challenge. That’s the real Stacy.
‘You’ll rarely see her smile in a tournament, but away from golf, she never stops. She’s a laugh-a-minute person with an amazing sense of humour. She’s always up for a challenge. If you want to find a city or town’s best-kept secret, stay close to Stace. Life with Stace on tour is always an adventure.’
Yet, neither Jekyll nor Hyde returned from the US last December.
‘I was an empty shell,’ admits Bregman after a recent runner-up finish at the Joburg Ladies Open.
‘After I crossed the hurdles at the first and second stage, I went to the Final Stage of the LPGA Qualifying School as ready as I’ve ever been. I shot rounds of 75, 76, 71 and 75 and finished nine over. It was five shots too many.’
And those five shots were more than Bregman could handle. After 11 years of fighting, grinding, close calls, of ups and downs and highs and lows on the international stage, the 31-year-old hit rock bottom.
‘It was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back,’ says the Investec Property player. ‘I never felt more ready for the LPGA Tour. I got through those first two stages so comfortably. I really backed myself. I was positive and I was ready to start the next phase of my career. When I missed the cut-off for the final round, I had nothing left.
‘I couldn’t see past the disappointment. I felt so raw and despondent. I just didn’t have it in me to look past the failure. I came home, put the clubs away and switched off from golf. I was ready to just pack it
all in, but I knew I needed some distance to decide the future.’
But being among family and friends is like stepping into a cocoon of love, says Bregman.
‘Ultimately, coming home helped me gain perspective,’ she says. ‘I love coming home. After a couple of weeks on the road, there is nothing better than sleeping in your own bed. Getting back to the people who really love you, no matter what, puts life into perspective.
‘I looked up my old coach Neville Sundelson, who had a serious health scare last year. I worked off my frustration with the guys at Fight Fit. I spent time with a good friend in hospital who is going through a very hard time with cancer. I hung out with friends who don’t care what I do on the golf course and let their positive energy lift me. I just breathed for a while. Then I took a good long look at what I needed to do and pushed the reset button.’
During the 2017 season, Bregman split her time between the Ladies European Tour, the Symetra Tour in the US and her support team in the United Kingdom.
‘All the travelling meant I didn’t come home as frequently as I did in the past. Ask any of the South African players abroad and they will tell you the same: you crave that time at home to reboot and that was probably one of the biggest changes I made.
‘I had a long discussion with my manager, Ally Mellor. Then I joined Nicole at the Grant Veenstra Academy at Ebotse. I’ve known Grant since we played junior golf together. He knows me well, the Stacy on and off the course. We started working on some changes to my swing. It’s a work in progress, but it’s all been positive. I’m in a good place.’
So good, in fact, that Bregman marked a dramatic return to the winner’s circle on the Sunshine Ladies Tour with a magnificent wire-to-wire performance at the season-opening Canon Ladies Tshwane Open in late January.
It was her first victory since she racked up a hat-trick of titles in 2015 and it came at the most opportune time.
‘If I needed anything to convince myself that I made the right decision it was winning at Pretoria Country
Club. It was the most controlled golf I’ve played in years.
‘I always had a way of getting into my head when things went bad on the course. I would lose focus and the downward spiral would begin. It never happened once in Pretoria. After every bad shot, I recovered with a great shot and I kept that positive energy going. Even when I started the last round with a double-bogey, I looked at my caddie, Lucky, and said, “That’s it for today; let’s make some birdies.”
‘I turned a huge corner that week. I started the season the way I mean to go forward. I never show much emotion, but I’ll tell you, I went home and I had a good little cry. It was a happy cry, though.
‘I had so much riding on coming back from the darkest place I’d been in my career and I made it happen. I don’t know if anything will ever feel as good, as gratifying. It was the best feeling to walk off the 18th with that win.’
Bregman backed up the victory with another superb effort at Modderfontein. Although it didn’t all go her way at the Cape Town Ladies Open, the smiles are coming with frequency on the golf course, too.
‘I always laugh when people ask me why I don’t smile on the course. I’m out there working, for crying out loud. Do you smile all day at your desk job? Actually, an amateur asked Ash [Buhai] last year why I’m always so angry. That shocked me. I look very serious out there, but that’s something I picked up through all the years I did karate. It taught me focus and I get very intense when I play. But I’m not an ogre. Really.’
Life on Tour has been hard on Bregman, who has come close to the winner’s circle too many times to count in more than a decade on the Ladies European Tour.
But it has also had its rewards.
‘One of the things I realised when I looked back on my career last year, was how many places I’ve been to,’ she says. ‘It’s not just about exploring the restaurants and finding the best coffee shops – I’m nuts about good coffee – or seeing the major attractions, like the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal or another great temple we discovered in Thailand.
‘Bucharest was incredible and Prague was magnificent, but it’s about so much more than collecting great photos. Travelling broadens your horizons. It opens your eyes to the different cultures, to art and architecture, which are two of my greatest passions. It’s a window into how people live across the world and it enriches your life.’
And she’s looking forward to discovering the US this year.
‘I decided to skip the Ladies European Tour’s first stretch in Australasia to play the Sunshine Ladies Tour and then I’m heading to the US to compete on the Symetra Tour. I’ll still play some Ladies European Tour events to keep my card, but my focus is shifting to the LPGA Tour.
‘I am going to base myself in the US to give myself a proper chance to get on the LPGA Tour. I think you need to do that, to get used to the conditions over there – the courses, the set-up and the competition. So, Bertine [Strauss] and I will travel together and try some Monday qualifiers for the LPGA Tour,
too. The best part is that we’ll be able to shack up with Ash and Dave every now and then and have a good old South African barbeque.’
*Editor’s note: Since this article was written, Bregman finished fourth at the SA Women’s Open at Westlake to secure the Investec Property Fund Order of Merit title.
BEST FINISHES (Sunshine Ladies Tour)
2013 – SA Women’s Open (T2nd)
2014 – Zambia Ladies Open (1st), Sunshine Ladies Tour Glendower (2nd), Sunshine Ladies Tour Obs (T4th)
2015 – Sun International Ladies Challenge (1st), Dimension Data Ladies Pro-Am (1st), Cape Town Ladies Open (1st), Investec Cup for Ladies – Bonus (3rd)
2016 – Ladies Joburg Open (T4th), Chase to the Investec Cup for Ladies (T2nd), Ladies Tshwane Open (T4th), Dimension Data Ladies Challenge (T4th)
2017 – SA Women’s Open (T3rd)
2018 – Canon Ladies Tshwane Open (1st), Joburg Ladies Open (T2nd)
– This article first appeared in the March issue of Compleat Golfer
