Golf remained popular throughout the 1980s, as it has for centuries. During this decade, some of the greatest and most well-known golfers in history competed against each other. Golf was at its peak in the 1980s, as the middle class expanded and the game gained appeal. In Particular, South African golfers of the 1980s began a revolution in the sport of golf. It changed everything.
1. Ernie Els
| Full Name | Theodore Ernest Els |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 17 October 1969 |
| Died | – |
| Gender | Male |
| Place of Birth | Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Profession | South African Professional Golfer |
| Nationality | South African |
| Height | 6 ft 3 in (191 cm) |
| Weight | 210 lb (95 kg) |
Theodore Ernest Els (born 17 October 1969) is a professional golfer from South Africa. He is nicknamed “The Big Easy” because of his intimidating physical size (he stands 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)) and fluid golf swing. Among his more than 70 career victories are four major championships: the US Open at Oakmont in 1994 and Congressional in 1997, The Open Championship at Muirfield in 2002, and Royal Lytham & St Annes in 2012. He is one of just six players who have won the US Open and The Open Championship twice. Most certainly, he is one of the South African golfers of the 1980s who had a heavy impact on the game.
- Els followed in the footsteps of Gary Player by touring the world to pursue his golf career. Els has spent most of his professional career playing in America, Africa, Australia, Asia, and Europe.
- He’s won it all. Els’ other career achievements include topping the European Tour Order of Merit (money list) in 2003 and 2004 and winning the World Match Play Championship a record seven times.
- He was the European Circuit’s highest career money winner until he was surpassed by Lee Westwood in 2011, and he was the first member of the tour to earn more than €25,000,000 from European Tour tournaments.
- He held the number one place in the Official World Golf Ranking and kept the record for weeks till 2013.
2. Retief Goosen
| Full Name | Retif Goosen |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | February 3, 1969 |
| Died | – |
| Nickname | The Goose, Iceman |
| Gender | Male |
| Place of Birth | Pietersburg, South Africa |
| Profession | South African Professional Golf |
| Nationality | South Africa |
| Spouse | 1 |
| Children | 2 |
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
| Weight | 185 lb (84 kg) |
Retief Goosen, a South African professional golfer who competes on the PGA Tour Champions, was born on February 3, 1969. He has two U.S. Open victories (2001 and 2004), topped the European Tour Order of Merit in 2001 and 2002, and spent more than 250 weeks between 2001 and 2007 in the top 10 in the global rankings.
Goosen went professional in October 1990 following a July victory in the South African Amateur Championship. After three-putting from 12 feet and missing a two-foot putt on the final green, he nearly lost his shot at victory but recovered to make a playoff with 1996 PGA Championship winner Mark Brooks. He is unquestionably one of the South African golfers of the 1980s who had a significant effect on the game. Goosen dominated the 18-hole playoff the next day, finally winning by two strokes. He finished his studies later that summer.
- He was chosen for the 2019 class of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
- Following his victory in the South African Amateur Championship of the same year in July, Goosen became a professional in October 1990.
- He won the silver medal at the 1992 European Tour Qualifying School and had success on the Tour between 1992 and 2000, but it wasn’t until 2001 that he became well-known in the United States after winning the U.S. Open on the extremely difficult Southern Hills Country Club course.
- He won the European Tour’s Qualifying School in 1992 and had success on the Tour between 1992 and 2000, but it wasn’t until 2001 that he created a reputation for himself in America with a U.S. Open victory on the difficult Southern Hills Country Club golf course.
3. Jeff Hawkes
| Full Name | Jeff Hawkes |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | September 3, 1953 |
| Died | – |
| Gender | Male |
| Place of Birth | Eastern Cape, South Africa |
| Profession | South African Professional Golf |
| Nationality | South Africa |
| Children | 2 |
| Height | 1.77 m (5 ft 10 in) |
Jeffrey Owen Hawkes (born 3 September 1953) is a South African professional golfer. Hawkes was born in Mthatha (formerly Umtata), Eastern Cape. He most likely belongs to the group of South African golfers from the 1980s who had a significant influence on the sport. In addition to his house in Bruma, near Johannesburg, he also has a residence in Bracknell, Berkshire, England.
- Hawkes made his pro debut in 1974.
- He played on the European Tour for nearly twenty years, finishing in the top one hundred on the European Tour Order of Merit every year from 1977 to 1991, with a peak position of 34th in 1987.
- His only European Tour victory came in the 1991 Canon European Masters Swiss Open.
- He has also won three tournaments on the Southern Africa Tour, which is now known as the Sunshine Tour.
4. David Frost
| Full Name | David Laurence Frost |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | September 11, 1959 |
| Died | – |
| Gender | Male |
| Place of Birth | Cape Town, South Africa |
| Profession | South African Professional Golf |
| Nationality | South Africa |
| Children | 2 |
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
| Weight | 92 kg (203 lb) |
David Laurence Frost (born 11 September 1959) is a professional golfer from South Africa who presently competes on the PGA Tour Champions. He formerly competed on the PGA Tour, the European Tour, and the Sunshine Tour. Frost has thirty professional tournament victories to his credit, spanning four continents. If we have to name one of the South African golfers of the 1980s who was at his prime, we have to include his name.
Frost was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and attended Paarl Boys’ High School from 1977 to 1980. In 1981, he made his professional debut. He was a cigarette salesperson in the past. In 1983, he won his first professional match in his own nation, and he has continued to play in South Africa during the northern winter.
- The 1989 NEC World Series of Golf, which he won by beating Ben Crenshaw on the second playoff hole, was the most prestigious.
- He finished in the top ten of the PGA Tour money list twice, in 1988 and 1993, and was rated in the top ten of the Official World Golf Rankings for 86 weeks between 1988 and 1994.
- He was no longer a regular competitor on the PGA Tour by his forties, but in 2005, he established the all-time PGA Tour 72-hole putting record with 92 putts at the MCI Heritage while placing tied 38th.
- Frost has re-established his career on the European Tour since 2007.
5. Simon Hobday
| Full Name | Simon Forbes Newbold Hobday |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | September 11, 1940 |
| Died | March 2, 2017 |
| Gender | Male |
| Nickname | Scruffy |
| Place of Birth | Mafikeng, South Africa |
| Profession | South African Professional Golf |
| Nationality | South Africa |
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
| Weight | 170 lb (77 kg) |
Simon Forbes Newbold Hobday (23 June 1940 – 2 March 2017) was a professional golfer from South Africa who won events on three continents. Mafikeng is where Hobday was born. He spent a portion of his life in Zambia and represented the nation in the Eisenhower Trophy in 1966. He was still an amateur golfer and represented Zambia in early 1969. He was a car salesperson in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, at the time.
- Hobday made his professional debut in 1969.
- He spent most of his professional career on the Southern Africa Tour, where he won six times, and the European Tour, where he won the 1976 German Open and the 1979 Madrid Open.
- As a senior, he mostly competed on the Senior PGA Tour (now Champions Tour) in the United States, where he won five titles between 1993 and 1995.
- Additionally, he had one senior major in the 1994 U.S. Senior Open. Hobday also spent time in Rhodesia.
6. Dale Hayes
| Full Name | Dale Hayes |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | July 1, 1940 |
| Died | – |
| Gender | Male |
| Place of Birth | Pretoria, South Africa |
| Profession | South African Professional Golf |
| Nationality | South Africa |
| Height | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) |
| Weight | 276 lb (125 kg) |
The name of a South African golfer who was at the top of his game throughout the 1980s must be mentioned. Dale Hayes (born 1 July 1952) is a professional golfer from South Africa. In 1969, Hayes won the 15-17 Boys category at the Junior World Golf Championships. He became a professional the next year and immediately rose to prominence. He won almost a dozen events in South Africa, including winning the South African Tour Order of Merit in 1972/73, and finished second in 1974, 1975, 1976, and 1979. In 1974, he and Bobby Cole won the World Cup of Golf for South Africa.
- Hayes won the Spanish Open at the age of 18 years and 290 days in 1971, becoming the European Tour’s youngest champion, a record that remained until Danny Lee won the Johnnie Walker Classic in 2009.
- He ranked fourth on the European Tour Order of Merit by 1973, rising to second in 1974 and top in 1975.
- He competed on the PGA Tour in 1976 and 1977, finishing tied for second in the 1977 Florida Citrus Open.
- He also finished in the top four in 1978 and 1979, but after his late twenties, he played little professional golf.
7. Gary Player
| Full Name | Gary Player |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | November 1, 1935 |
| Died | – |
| Gender | Male |
| Place of Birth | Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Profession | South African Professional Golf |
| Spouse | Viviene Verway |
| Children | 6 |
| Height | 5 ft 6 in (1.68m) |
| Weight | 150 lb (68 kg; 11 st) |
| Nationality | South Africa |
Gary James Player DMS, OIG (born 1 November 1935) is a retired South African professional golfer widely regarded as one of the best players of all time. At the age of 29, Player won the 1965 U.S. Open, becoming the only non-American to complete the career Grand Slam of winning all four majors. He was the youngest player to accomplish it at the time, however, Jack Nicklaus (26) and Tiger Woods (24) later broke this record.
He is a renowned golf course architect with over 400 design projects on five continents. He is also known as the Black Knight, Mr. Fitness, and the International Ambassador of Golf.
- In South Africa, Player was named “Sportsman of the Century” in 2000.
- In 1966, he received the Bob Jones Award, the United States Golf Association’s highest honor for exemplary sportsmanship in golf.
- In 1974, he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame opened the “Gary Player – A Global Journey” exhibition in March 2006.
- Golf Digest magazine named Player the sixth greatest golfer of all time in 2000.
- Player was named the second-best worldwide golfer of all time in 2002 by a panel of international media, golf periodicals, and fellow pros polled by the top Golf Asia Magazine.
8. Nick Price
| Full Name | Nicholas Raymond Leige Price |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 28 January 1957 |
| Died | – |
| Gender | Male |
| Place of Birth | Durban, Natal, South Africa |
| Profession | South African Professional Golf |
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) |
| Weight | 190 lb (86 kg) |
| Nationality | Zimbabwe |
Nicholas Raymond Leige Price (born 28 January 1957) is a Zimbabwean retired professional golfer who won the PGA Championship twice (in 1992 and 1994) and The Open Championship in 1994. Price rose to the top of the Official World Golf Ranking in the mid-1990s. In 2003, he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. We have to remember his legacy as one of the greatest South African golfers of the 1980s.
- Price was widely considered the top player in the world by the mid-1990s
- In 1994 he won two majors in a row, The Open and the PGA Championship, adding to his first major, the 1992 PGA Championship.
- He led the PGA Tour money list in 1993 and 1994, each time setting a new earnings record, and spent 43 weeks atop the Official World Golf Rankings.
- Price won the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit in 1982/83 and would have won it again in 1996/97 if he had played in the required number of events.
- Price received the Vardon Trophy in 1993 and 1997.
9. John Bland
| Full Name | John Louis Bland |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 22 September 1945 |
| Died | – |
| Gender | Male |
| Place of Birth | Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Profession | South African Professional Golf |
| Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) |
| Weight | 73 kg (161 lb |
| Nationality | South Africa |
John Louis Bland (born September 22, 1945) is a South African professional golfer who has won over thirty professional events worldwide. Bland was born in South Africa. His impact as one of the top South African golfers of the 1980s must be kept in mind.
- He turned professional in 1969 and spent almost twenty years as a top player on the Southern African Tour.
- During the northern summers, he competed on the European Tour, where he won twice.
- He was a more regular challenger than his record suggests, finishing in the top-20 on the Order of Merit six times.
- Bland mostly played on the Champions Tour in the United States after turning fifty in 1995.
- He won five events here, including four in 1996, when he was third on the money list.
- He has won three European Senior Tour titles.
10. John Fourie
| Full Name | Jonathan Adriaan Fourie |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | August 23, 1939 |
| Died | – |
| Gender | Male |
| Place of Birth | Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Profession | South African Professional Golf |
| Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) |
| Nationality | South Africa |
Jonathan Adriaan Fourie (born August 23, 1939) is a professional golfer from South Africa. Fourie grew up in Johannesburg.
- He became a pro in 1970 and spent most of his career on the Southern Africa Tour and the European Tour.
- He won the Southern Africa Tour eight times, including one as an amateur, and headed the Order of Merit in 1973/74.
- He won the Callers of Newcastle event in 1977 and finished in the top twenty on the European Tour Order of Merit twice.
- In its first season in 1992, he won the Senior British Open and the Belfast Telegraph Irish Senior Masters on his way to winning the European Seniors Tour’s order of merit.
- He played on the senior’s circuit until his mid-sixties.
Conclusion
The 1980s were a historic decade for golf, particularly for South African golfers, and several famous players developed during this period. South African golfers of the 1980s really changed the dynamics of the game with their brilliant mindset for the game and the sport itself. They changed the game with their brilliant play and novel tactics. Their achievements are still appreciated and admired today.
People Also Read:
