FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME

As Peter Allis said in his speech when he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2012: “I’ve been very lucky. Things have always just fallen into my lap.”

I suppose, because of my love for the game of golf, I can say the same thing.

All I ever wanted to do as a schoolboy was play professional golf. It certainly never entered my mind that I would start a golf magazine or become a trick-shot golfer, and never in a million years did I imagine I would become a television presenter.

It all started in 1990, when I attended the Nedbank Golf Challenge. That was the year David Frost beat José Maria Olazábal by one shot for the second of his three wins. I bumped into Trevor Quirk, one of South Africa’s most respected golf commentators at the time, and he invited me to the commentary studio to see how it all happened.

In those days, the commentary booth was perched on a three-storey high scaffolding structure at the driving area to the right of the 18th fairway. If I remember correctly, Quirkie and Willem van Drimmelin were commentating when I arrived.

There was an extra chair, and Quirkie motioned for me to sit down. He handed me a pair of headphones so I could hear the producer, director and also Willem commentating in Afrikaans and Trevor in English. What a voice Willem had, and he’d make up his own words for golfing terms in Afrikaans.

Next thing I know, Trevor asks me a question and hands me the microphone. I am sure Trevor has regretted that ever since, because now they can’t stop me talking!

Soon after, I was asked to start commentating on course at the Sunshine Tour tournaments with Trevor, Willem, Martin Locke and Denis Hutchinson. It was a blast working with Basie Blignaut and Scottie Seward, who produced the shows. In fact, Basie won the very first award for Sport on SABC in 1976 for his coverage of the Lexington PGA Championship at Wanderers Golf Club where I beat Gary Player.

A few years later, Trevor and Sue Quirk approached me about hosting a TV magazine golf show called The Golf Bag. It was a weekly 30-minute show, broadcast live from the SABC studios in Auckland Park.

SuperSport launched the following year, and Trevor, Sue and I approached Russell MacMillan, who headed up the new sport channel, and presented our proposal for a 90-minute weekly magazine show called The Pitch & Putter. We already had a fabulous sponsor in Bell's Whiskey who were with us for years, and we launched on 14 November 1996. The show later became SuperGolf.

All this happened while I was also commentating on the Sunshine Tour.

Hoddy Wood, the head producer of the European Tour (now known as the DP World Tour) productions, approached me to do a few tournaments on the Tour. I started in the late 1990s when South Africa became the first country to co-sanction an event with the DP World Tour – the Dunhill PGA Championship at Houghton.

After the DP World Tour’s Nedbank Golf Challenge in early November, their Opening Swing included five events in South Africa, co-sanctioned with the Sunshine Tour: the Joburg Open, the Investec South African Open Championship and the Alfred Dunhill Championship in November and December, and at the end of February, the SDC Championship and the Jonsson Workwear Open. South Africa hosts more DP World Tour events than any other country, which is something we should be very proud of.

I’ve been lucky enough to commentate at far more tournaments than I played, including all four Majors. I’m always amazed at how many people recognise my voice. They often have no idea who I am!

I’d like to finish by stealing two lines from the great Peter Allis. “How can I retire? Even I can’t wait to hear what I’m going to say next,” and “I’m more famous now than I was when I was famous.”

Season’s greetings to all and I’ll see you out there on the fairways in 2024.