The face of golf in South Africa is changing for the better.
I was profoundly moved by this year’s Open Championship at St Andrews and that wonderful walk up the 18th fairway for the champion, where so many of the world’s greatest golfers have walked before. The immortal Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, Australia’s Peter Thomson, South Africa’s Bobby Locke, Jack Nicklaus, Severiano Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods — in the 150 years of the oldest major golf championship of them all.
But for me, having spent the best part of 10 years in South Africa — playing professional cricket, living and then working in broadcasting — the sheer poignancy of seeing Louis Oosthuizen and his caddie, Zack Rasego, stroll together down that hallowed stretch of turf in front of those world-famous old hotels to the end of their four-day journey at the home of golf, was a moment to savour for life.
Here was a white Afrikaner arm-in-arm with a black South African conversing in Afrikaans, the language despised by blacks during Apartheid because of its symbolism with the white minority. Just a generation ago, this scene would never have happened, let alone at the home of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, the custodians of the game.
As I watched these two men smiling uninhibitedly to the galleries, I experienced a huge sense of pride for the beautiful Rainbow Nation, so-called because of its cultural diversity. This moment was not just about Louis Oosthuizen becoming only the fourth South African to win the Open Championship after Bobby Locke, Gary Player and Ernie Els. For me this was an emotional scene in a country which still has to deal with everyday problems based on racial divisions.
Where does the game of golf fit into modern South Africa? How could Zack Rasego one day walk the fairways of the beautiful golf courses of the Cape, enjoying his time with nature, instead of carrying a heavy bag of clubs for his employer?
In my 10 years of living in South Africa, there were no black golfers in the exclusive memberships of the great golf clubs of that country. Young black lads were caddies. They were amazingly good caddies, but they had no chance of playing, although the Wanderers Club in Johannesburg, where I was a member, gave the entire course to the caddies on Mondays for them to enjoy a full day’s golf.
Mercifully, times have changed. The rise in stature of the empowered black middle class has seen a rise in the numbers of black players in the golf clubs, but they are not many. The Ernie Els Foundation, set up by the man they call ‘The Big Easy’ is a way forward for young players of all colours.
Louis Oosthuizen, himself from a working-class family in the Western Cape, eulogised about his time spent with Ernie Els in the Foundation, maintaining that he could not have achieved his status as a professional golfer without having been taken under Ernie’s wing.
James Kamte is a former caddie and now professional golfer who also came through the Ernie Els Foundation. James is the first black South African to earn a European Tour card in 30 years. He turned down an opportunity to become a professional footballer in Johannesburg to concentrate on making it in golf. His parents and his other five siblings would have thought Jimmy a touch crazy to have opted for this line of work. Black people did not make it at golf, but James has. He has won on the Asian Tour, and he has impressed Tiger Woods with the huge distances he hits the golf ball.
Meeting the big boys in golf was the stuff of boyhood dreams for James Kamte, and for that he can thank Gary Player. Gary made sure that Kamte met Jack Nicklaus and Nicklaus got him into his Memorial Tournament last year. Kamte also qualified for the 2009 US Open, where he met Tiger Woods. Woods was hugely impressed, though initially astonished to see another black player on the practice range.
The ladies of the LPGA have to be applauded for their wonderful initiative called Project Golf 2014, which was conceived in South Africa to correct the imbalance of black golfers in the world today. The project focuses on the introduction of golf and the various career opportunities open to children predominantly from rural communities. However, the overall aim of Project Golf 2014 is to produce 2,014 golfers who can play with a recognised golf handicap by the year 2014, which is the 20-year anniversary of democracy in South Africa.
Louis Oosthuizen and Zack Rasego have been together as a player-caddie combination for seven years. The population of South Africa is one of the most complex and diverse in the world. Of the 45 million South Africans, nearly 31 million are black, 5 million white, 3 million coloured and 1 million Indian.
There are 11 official languages in South Africa. Louis and Zack spoke only one at St Andrews. They spoke golf. They spoke for the future of South Africa and how golf can play its part for every boy or girl who wants a chance to play on the green fairways of the Rainbow Nation.
Alan Wilkins is a TV broadcaster for ESPN Star Sports. Inside Edge appears every alternate week
