The significance of rain: celebrating Dylan Naidoo's triumph at the 2025 South African Open

Dylan Naidoo's victory at the 2025 South African Open not only marks a significant milestone in his career but also serves as a powerful symbol of transformation and resilience in South African golf, echoing the legacy of Papwa Sewgolum, writes SELVAN NAIDOO

RAIN has various meanings for different people, at its core, it is a potent symbol of joy and pain. For Hindus, in death, each drop of rain symbolises the rebirth of a soul. It is also a metaphor for life, renewal, and rebirth. For Christians, rain has a dual symbolism of being a blessing and a curse.

For Lenasia born Dylan Naidoo, the rain that fell at the Durban Country Club when he won the 2025 South African Open Golf tournament last Sunday, symbolised the triumph and resilience of the human spirit to soar against all odds.

The rain that fell as Naidoo picked up his trophy symbolised blessings of joy that lifted the weight of expectation for a people’s journey.

Sixty-two years and thirty-three days before Naidoo won the South African Open at Durban Country Club, Papwa Sewshanker Sewgolum, an Indian indentured descendent golfer from Riverside, Durban, was presented his tournament-winning trophy in the rain on January 27, 1963, outside the clubhouse of the same club.

The colour of his skin prevented Papwa from witnessing the human dignity of receiving his trophy with respect.

Some 30 years into South Africa’s democracy, the conditions under which Papwa and Naidoo won their tournaments were vastly different.

Sixty-two years ago, South Africa’s best-ever black golfer was denied the basic right to use the changerooms and to eat in the clubhouse during the height of apartheid. In a show of healing in a democratic South Africa, Naidoo had all the privileges that Papwa was denied. 

Naidoo’s win has enormous consequences and significance.

To digest his victory, let us consider that he became the only player of colour to win South Africa’s National Golf Open Tournament, one of the oldest tournaments in the world. Like Papwa, who won the 1959, 1960, and 1964 Dutch Open tournaments, and Vincent Tshabalala, who won the French Open in 1976, Naidoo became the 3rd player of colour to win an international open golf tournament.

By winning the South African Open, Naidoo also became only the 6th player of colour to win on the Sunshine Tour after Hendrich Bruinners won the Stella Artois Players Championship in 2024.  

Bruinners, together with Naidoo, form part of the Sunshine Tour initiative’s Papwa Sewgolum Class, aimed at accelerating transformation and providing more pathways and access for golfers of colour.

Naidoo’s win came on the shoulders of talented black golfers of the past like Ramnath Bambata, Vincent Tshabalala, Richard Mogoerane, Ismail Chowglay, Simon ‘Cox’ Nhlapo, Daddy Naidoo, John Mashego, Lindani Ndwandwe, Tongoona Charamba, Madalitso Muthiya, Toto Thimba and many amateur golfers, who simply did not have the opportunities and support that is necessary for golf to produce championship winners.

Naidoo’s South African Open triumph must be foregrounded against the background of the legend of Papwa’s story.

Buoyed by his 1959 and 1960 Dutch Open wins, Papwa, applied to play in the white-only Natal Open on 6th January 1963. Despite being denied entry to play in the Natal Open of the previous year, Louis Nelson, Sewgolum’s manager, provided the Natal Golf Union with the legal opinion that there was no legal barrier to Papwa’s participation in the tournament.

The Natal Golf Union thus had little option but to accept the application for Papwa to play in the 1963 Natal Open. The tournament was held at the famous Durban Country Club. In the same year of 1963, further validation of Papwa’s golfing prowess saw him finishing in a credible 13th place in the British Open played at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in England.

In round one of that championship, Papwa was placed 10th on the leaderboard, tied on a score of 71 with arguably the greatest player of all time, Jack Nicklaus.

The Durban Country Club is a golf club steeped in colonial splendour. The Cape Dutch gable facades, constantly painted in pristine white with its manicured lawns and hedges make for a very regal colonial setting. This grand colonial edifice to upper-class living was no place for the alien menace of Papwa’s ancestry.

In this colonial aura, Papwa, a son of Riverside, did the seemingly impossible in the eyes of most whites and won the tournament, with scores of 73, 70, 74, and 76. On the last day, watched by a surging crowd of Indian supporters, a crowd similar to that which followed Naidoo, Papwa parred the final hole to win by a stroke. It was an astonishing feat for this was the first time a person of colour had won a whites-only tournament in South Africa. 

He won by one stroke from Bobby Verwey and Denis Hutchinson, claiming the R800 prize money. Papwa was immediately hoisted onto the shoulders of his ecstatic followers.

Unlike the coverage that Naidoo received on national television, the South African Broadcasting Corporation refused to mention Papwa's win on the air.

"We do not broadcast multiracial sport," grumped programme director Douglas Fuchs. But the word got around, and if SABC announcers were not talking about Papwa Sewgolum and the Natal Open, everyone else was.

The legend of the ensuing prize giving has been mired in controversy with varying accounts being told after each decade. Just as Papwa changed in his manager's car and combed his hair, the rain began to fall.

Papwa was given the trophy under the shade of an umbrella as the rain lashed his face. As per the law, he was not allowed to enter the Durban Country Club clubhouse to receive his prize. The planned outdoor ceremony had to be moved inside, into the clubhouse to complete the prizegiving, where the likes of Papwa could not tread.

After the rushed presentation besides the 18th green, all the white players, patrons and club members sought refuge in the comfort of the clubhouse, where all the other prizes were presented. In a game that espouses fair play and integrity, Papwa was barred from celebrating his victory in the presence of his fellow competitors, all because of the colour of his skin.

While further celebrations went on, Papwa and his fans made their way home to their tin shanties not far away from Durban Country Club. Whatever the interpretation of the conflicting details of the prize-giving, the incident was just one of countless apartheid assaults that Papwa endured as a potent symbol of exclusion.

Naidoo’s 2025 South African Open win becomes a potent symbol of inclusion, perseverance, and hope for a new path in a people’s journey.

The rain that fell when Naidoo won felt like a rainbow that had not appeared since Papwa won the Natal Open in 1963. Naidoo’s win will inspire the next generation of Papwa Sewgolum, Ramnath Bambata, Vincent Tshabalala, Richard Mogoerane, Ismail Chowglay, Simon ‘Cox’ Nhlapo, Daddy Naidoo, John Mashego, Lindani Ndwandwe, Tongoona Charamba, Madalitso Muthiya, Toto Thimba and Hendrich Bruinners to triumph against all odds.   

Selvan Naidoo is the author of Out of the rough, Papwa. A Player denied.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media. 

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