The Constance Belle Mare Plage Hotel on the beautiful east coast of Mauritius is known, among its many attractions, for its culinary delights. And as he tucked into a scrumptious breakfast during the season-ending $1-million MCB Tour Championship on the Legends Tour in December, James Kingston, one of South African golf’s genuine “Mr Nice Guys”, is talking about his long-time journey in the game.

It has taken him from South Africa’s so-called low-key Winter Tour, to the more lucrative Sunshine Tour, to Asia, to Europe and now, finally, to a point where at the age of 58 he is one of the leading and most popular players on the Legends Tour, formerly known as the European Senior Tour.

“You know,” he says, his eyes sparkling, “it wasn’t always like this. Growing up, I was just a farmer’s kid from little Ottosdal playing golf on a nine-hole, makeshift platteland course with veld fairways and oil and sand greens. I wanted to be a pro golfer but at least one person said it just wasn’t going to happen.

“A well-known golf writer at the time – this was in the 1980s – published in his newspaper a list of young South Africans who he felt were going to make it as professional golfers. He also mentioned a handful of players who he reckoned didn’t have what it takes and shouldn’t bother joining the paid ranks. I was on that no-chance list.”

How James Kingston has proved that golf writer wrong. He wasn’t going to listen to that prophet of doom. He turned professional in 1988 and with hard work, determination and plenty of skill has now won 21 times in all corners of the world. There have been 11 Sunshine Tour victories, four in Asia, two on the European Tour (now the DP World Tour) and, lastly, three on the Legends Tour – the Italian Senior Open in 2021, the Swiss Senior Open in 2022 (when he impressively topped the Legends Tour Order of Merit), and the Italian Open again last year.

“You know, when I left school and was on my way to the army I was a nine-handicap. No great shakes. Times on the farm were hard and my dad, also called James, had to make sacrifices to help me get somewhere with golf. So I had that humble background and when I first got on Tour, I was thinking along the lines of: ‘I have no right to stand up on the tee with Lee Westwood!’”

To his credit, Kingston put those doubts behind him, although he had to wait 19 years for his first victory on the summer leg of the Sunshine Tour.

In December 2007 at Pearl Valley that elusive win was finally in the bag after the then 42-year-old edged out England’s Oliver Wilson by a stroke to capture the South African Open. It wasn’t only a Sunshine Tour summer first, but his maiden win on the European Tour too as it was a co-sanctioned event. And the tears he shed after his long-awaited triumph were not only from the relief he felt after all the years of trying but also for the members of his family who were not with him to celebrate the greatest day of his life as a professional golfer.

Kingston’s brother Chris was tragically killed in a car accident in 1989 and his father passed away in 1995 from a heart attack. James was playing at a tournament in Swaziland, part of the FNB Pro Series, at the time and heard the news after completing the second round. Naturally he was devastated but he also knew his father would have wanted him to complete the tournament, and the next day he went out and won it in honour of a man he dearly loved.

The SA Open win, incidentally, helped him top the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit that season. The kid from Ottosdal’s oil and sand greens had come good in a big way at plush Pearl Valley.