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TAKING CHARGE
South Africa’s top-ranked golfer has found his groove on the PGA Tour.
Michael Vlismas
As Christiaan Bezuidenhout led the South African golf team at the Paris Olympics, the greatest stage in sport was certainly a metaphor for a golfer who seems poised to make the biggest breakthroughs in his career.
Change, and adapting to change, have been a common theme for Bezuidenhout over the past few years. From a change in countries to a critical swing change. And ever since earning his card on the PGA Tour, Bezuidenhout has looked more and more like the real deal every week he’s out there.
He’s had two runner-up finishes and six top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour. In his mind, it’s certainly only a matter of time before he breaks through and claims that first PGA Tour title.
“I am 100% certain I can win on the PGA Tour. I’ve had a couple of second places and a few top 10s. It’s just a matter of time when you find that week where it clicks. Certainly, on the Florida swing where the golf courses are a little bit harder and tougher, I actually feel like it suits my game more. But I definitely believe I can win out here and I’m pretty sure it will happen soon,” he says.
“I am 100% certain I can win on the PGA Tour... It’s just a matter of time when you find that week where it clicks”
Bezuidenhout certainly feels a lot more comfortable with life inside and outside the ropes in the US.
“It’s been a huge change just moving over to the US. It definitely took me a couple of years to find my feet and learn the ropes, along with the golf courses and the people on Tour. I’ve been in a much better head space in the past year and a half.
“I’ve played 90% of the golf courses now so I know what to expect every week and I can set my schedule around the courses I like and the places I like to travel to. It makes your prep easier because you don’t have to overwork yourself or play more than one practice round, as you know the courses better.
“We’ve also bought a house in the US. In the past, we were living with friends or staying in a hotel or renting an Airbnb, but we’ve settled down. I’ve also got a baby boy now which puts so much more perspective into my life away from golf. There’s a bigger picture away from the game and that just makes me more relaxed on the golf course. It’s just about being more comfortable in the environment I’m in now.”
MAKING AN IMPACT
Before the 2022 World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, Bezuidenhout met Graeme, a nine-year-old golf fan who was born with a stutter. Bezuidenhout has partnered with the Arthur M Blank Center for Stuttering Education & Research, an organisation dedicated to raising awareness of stuttering. Bezuidenhout met Graeme at an event hosted by The Blank Center and later that week, he invited the youngster to spend the day on the golf course to watch him compete.
“I have started to feel the changes paying off in the past few months. For the first time in a long time, I can feel I’ve got more control of my swing and golf ball”
That’s the arc of his life taken care of, and as for the arc of his golf swing, there’s a greater sense of comfort here too.
“I made a swing coach change in the middle of the season last year. Making a big change like that in the middle of the season while you still have to play and compete was really tough for me, but I managed to finish the year by keeping my playing privileges on the PGA Tour.
“I have started to feel the changes paying off in the past few months. For the first time in a long time, I can feel I’ve got more control of my swing and golf ball, and that’s what you need on the PGA Tour where you compete with the best players in the world.”
The ability to make that key step up is an important one for a player of Bezuidenhout’s ability, especially when you consider his record as a three-time winner on the DP World Tour whose “narrowest” margin of victory has been four strokes, and who has been ranked as high as 33 in the world and is now looking very comfortable within the top 50.
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“I had to change a lot in my swing. I’ve always struggled with an early extension through the ball and my clubface would fall open at the top, so I’d have to save it through the ball. There was a lot of rotation with my hands through the ball. I had to rely on so much timing every week and it just wasn’t consistent enough.
“If my timing was on one week I’d play well, but most of the weeks you’re not going to have your timing there. I was looking for more consistency. I went to a stronger clubface going back so it could be more stable through the ball. I’d been playing like that for 15-plus years so to make such a big change was tough and I had to dig deep.”
As these things go, all of this change has brought about stability in Bezuidenhout’s life and game that he is relishing as he looks to the goals that lie ahead.
“I want to push for the FedExCup Playoffs and make it into the Tour Champs this year. I played my first Presidents Cup two years ago and it’s one I want to do my best not to miss. Plus it’s an Olympic year. Any time you can get the opportunity to represent your country, it’s a huge honour.”
DID YOU KNOW?
Bezuidenhout excelled as an amateur golfer, with highlights including winning the 2013 Western Province Amateur Stroke Play and Match Play, and the Eastern Cape & Border Stroke Play.
He joined the paid ranks in early 2015, the same year he won the Order of Merit on the Big Easy Tour. In December 2015, he won the Sunshine Tour Q-School. He finished runner-up to Brandon Stone at the first event of the season – the 2016 BMW SA Open, co-sanctioned with the European Tour. He went on to win the 2016-17 Sunshine Tour Rookie of the Year.
He earned his European Tour (now DP World Tour) card for 2018 and retained it for the 2019 season. In June 2019 he earned his first win on the Tour – the Estrella Damm NA Andalucía Masters – which also earned him entry into that year’s 2019 Open Championship. He finished third at the 2019 BMW PGA Championship to enter the world top 100 for the first time.
In February 2020 he won the Dimension Data Pro-Am and entered the top 50 on the World Golf Ranking. In November that year, Bezuidenhout won the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek Country Club. A week later, he claimed a wire-to-wire victory at the South African Open at Gary Player Country Club. He became the first player with back-to-back victories on the European Tour since Justin Rose in 2017.
In January 2024, Bezuidenhout tied his best finish on the PGA Tour with a runner-up finish at The American Express; one shot behind amateur Nick Dunlap. He claimed first place prize money due to Dunlap’s amateur status.
IMAGES: CARL FOURIE/TYRONE WINFIELD/PETRI OESCHGER/SUNSHINE TOUR/DAVID DAVIES/PA/ERIK S LESSER/BACKPAGEPIX/CHRIS KEANE/JEFF MARSH/USGA/CHRIS CONDON/PGA TOUR/IGF