The Sunshine Tour is in Zimbabwe this week, and then next month onto Zambia for two weeks. There is also talk of a tournament in Rwanda, and even in the DRC. There are two courses in the DRC, in Lubumbashi and Kinshasa and both are lovely to play.
The DP World Tour also has a tournament in Kenya every year. My son has also played professionally in Egypt and Morocco.
Promoting and growing our sport
All this top tier golf on our continent bodes well for the game in Africa. While enjoying the fairways, it is easy to lose sight of how important it is to promote and grow our sport.
The DP World Tour only comes here because of the number of players and supporters who will watch and buy merchandise. Such is the reality of modern professional sport.
When we take our eye off the ball, we may well lose out on the opportunity of international participation.
Growing the game starts with young players being given the opportunity to play on real courses. When my son, Luke Brown, at age 15, wanted to join The Country Club Johannesburg, he was told that only the children of existing members could join.
I had a meeting with the committee, and we discussed the future of clubs like CCJ and golf in general. To their credit they saw the light and changed the rules. Today, 12 years later, CCJ is a thriving family club, with children everywhere, and a strong youth programme.
It is also one of the most financially stable golf clubs in the country. The next time you encounter children at your club, remember that they are the future of golf.
Losing gracefully
Learning how to lose is one of life’s more difficult lessons. Learning how to lose gracefully is essential for a professional golfer. Tiger at his peak won one in three, the best record of anybody, ever. Phil is second all-time with one in 10. It is said that 1 win a year on the PGA tour and you have a career. More than that and you have a career with wealth.
My son, a professional player on the Sunshine Tour, won his first ever tournament, aged five (Little Kids Golf). He assumed that was how it would continue, because obviously he was so talented. Upon loosing every other tournament that year, some explanation was required.
We went through the list of winners for the year and could see that nobody had won more than once.
I explained that every week a different player got the chance to win, and you never knew when it was your chance again. You just had to try as hard as you could and be satisfied with that.
As Dr Bob Rotella says in his book, How Champions Think, “if God said you would win a major, but wouldn’t tell you which one, you would play each tournament with confidence and the expectation that this could be the one.”
My advice to my son seems to have worked, as he won The Most Laidback Player Award on the Sunshine Tour for last season.
Play with freedom and confidence, you never know what might happen.
- The Sunshine Tour is in Zimbabwe this week, and then next month onto Zambia for two weeks.
- There is also talk of a tournament in Rwanda, and even in the DRC.
- There are two courses in the DRC, in Lubumbashi and Kinshasa and both are lovely to play.
- The DP World Tour also has a tournament in Kenya every year.
- My son has also played professionally in Egypt and Morocco.
