Dylan Naidoo’s SA Open victory was massive for players of colour, but when will we see the next top black African golfer?

There’s no denying that Dylan Naidoo’s shock win at the SA Open on Sunday was a massive step forward for players of colour in the country, but it once again raises the question: when will we see a top black African player from the Rainbow Nation?

Though success on the biggest stage is never guaranteed, Naidoo’s win certainly gives him opportunity. His SA Open triumph, which came at Durban Country Club in a playoff in the rain-shortened event, awards the 27-year-old automatic playing card privileges on the DP World Tour, and entry into The Open Championship later this year.

Naidoo is also a former Golf RSA member, which together with the Sunshine Tour has made incredible progress for the development of the sport in South Africa.

However, there is still not another top class black African golfer that can lay claim to a European Tour victory, since Vincent Tshabalala won the French Open in 1976.

The 'SA Tiger Woods'

It brings to mind one James Kamte. The prodigiously talented Kamte was hailed as the South African Tiger Woods by Gary Player in the 2000s.

Now aged 42 and ranked 3368th in the world, Kamte these days misses more cuts than he makes and is a shadow of the player which seemed destined for greatness in the late 2000s.

Kamte won three times in just over a year on the Sunshine Tour starting in September 2007, with his breakthrough coming at the Seekers Travel Pro-Am.

In fact, he won his 2008 European Tour card at the gruelling Qualifying School – Final Stage.

When Kamte earned his European Tour card, he became the first black South African player to earn full playing privileges since Tshabalala in 1976 and 1977.

Though GolfRSA remains a shining light in developing golfers from all backgrounds in South Africa, the fact remains – golf in the Rainbow Nation is still a white elitist sport. The allure of golf for many a sporting prodigy is low compared to soccer, rugby or even cricket.

Inspiring the next generation

It’s for this reason that when golfers do make it as a professional, and learn how to compete and sometimes even win on the world stage like Kamte did – that players like him need to keep their name up there – if only to inspire the next generation of young black players.

If a young black African can’t see someone that looks like him excelling, he has little inspiration to keep playing a game which is filled with competitors who have come from far greater privilege.

Golf equipment and the majority of courses in South Africa, remain prohibitively expensive and exclusive – and it is rare to see anything but a non-black procession of golfers stroll the fairways.

But perhaps with Naidoo’s victory at the SA Open, the fact that he isn’t white, may just set the ball rolling.

@Michael_Sherman

IOL Sport