Swing changes, new equipment and better coaches are all elements that can lead to success on Tour. But Jacques Blaauw highlights one thing that is often overlooked.

“Discipline,” says the Sunshine Tour professional, who this season claimed the fifth victory of his career, at the SunBet Challenge Sun City.

The win ended an eight-year wait for his next title. And that, says Blaauw, is where discipline becomes key.

“Eight years is a long time to wait for a win, and I wasn’t sure when it was going to come again. With golf being an individual sport you need incredible discipline to keep working at your game. It’s very easy to stray from that path when you feel that what you’re working on is just not showing the results. That’s the hardest thing in professional golf. So it’s all about sticking to that process for me, and then the rest will come,” he says.

Blaauw has the experience to know the value of his words.

When he won his first Sunshine Tour title in 2013, James Kingston and Adilson da Silva were still winning on the main Tour, and Desvonde Botes and Garth Mulroy were also still competing. Then in June this year, Blaauw won at Sun City in a playoff against an entirely new generation of player in Tristin Galant.

“I’d been playing good golf for a while before the win at Sun City. I was confident in that playoff. But when I hit my third shot in, and then Tristin hit his closer, I kind of felt it was his title and I’d just try again next week. Then Tristin missed a short putt. I was a bit surprised when he made bogey and I’d made par to win. You don’t always want to win like that, but having said that, winning is a great feeling.”

Blaauw has many great attributes within his arsenal. He has the obvious talent that made him one of the country’s top amateurs before he turned professional. He is as personable as a wide-open fairway. But he also has a relentless work ethic along with the discipline that treats golf, as glamorous as it may seem, as a job that requires hours of input to be successful.

“I felt like my game was coming together very nicely and I was achieving some good results, and then Covid hit and that felt like a gut punch to me. I’ve been working incredibly hard for the past few years. So this victory was a long time coming.

“In January I changed coach and then in February I changed my clubs, so there was quite an adjustment. I think this, combined with a few things I’ve been working on regarding the mental side of my game, all came together.”

As for his longevity in the game, Blaauw believes implicitly in sticking to his process no matter who’s in a tournament field with him.

“Generations will always come and go. I used to look up to Garth Mulroy and James Kingston, and I also played a lot of golf with Desvonde Botes. I wanted to beat them because they were so consistent for all those years.

“I mean, now we have Jean Hugo who recently won his 21st Sunshine Tour title. I think he’s an incredible role model. Thriston Lawrence also summed it up really well when he said you never know when that win will come, and every win is different and should be savoured.

“The youngsters now are hitting the ball further and it makes it tougher for guys like me who’ve been on Tour for 15-plus years. But we just need to keep working harder.”

IMAGES: TYRONE WINFIELD/SHAUN ROY/CARL FOURIE/SUNSHINE TOUR