Brooks Koepka’s well-earned PGA Championship triumph on Sunday was measured by many in terms of his participation in the rebel LIV series, but there’s a more worrying filter to be used by South African fans.
Gary Player remains the only South African to have won that major, which he did twice, in 1962 and 1972, making it the least happy hunting ground on the grand slam circuit for players from the southern tip of Africa.
Compare that to 10 wins at the British Open (Bobby Locke, 4; Gary Player, 3; Ernie Els, 2; Louis Oosthuizen, 1), five apiece at the Masters (Player, 3; Trevor Immelman, 1; Charl Schwartzel, 1) and the US Open (Els, 2; Retief Goosen, 2; Player 1).
But another miss means the gap since the last SA major victory, Els winning the 2012 Open, continues to grow. There’s still some time before the hiatus equals the longest drought between two grand slam wins — 16 years from Player’s 1978 Masters victory to Els’s 1994 US Open win. I’m counting from Locke taking his first British Open in 1949.
There’s no doubt that there is promising men’s golfing talent emerging in the country, but the question is: when they will pull the trigger? Even a win at the Paris Olympics next year could be pretty cool.
SA golf has been strong for most of the past 70 years, but the standard internationally has also grown, making victory far harder to achieve these days.
And then we look at a sport like rugby sevens, where SA won gold in spectacular fashion at the Commonwealth Games, and that is also looking tough all of a sudden.
The performance by the Blitzboks in Birmingham last year made them clear medal prospects ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, but their display in the World Sevens Series this season has been abysmal.
They ended seventh after the 11 legs, the last of which was played in London this weekend. Only the top four qualify for the Games. With fourth-placed France already qualified as hosts, fifth-placed Australia secured that spot.
That means SA will have to qualify at the continental competition.
Had this happened under the previous SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) regime, the campaign to get to the Games would have ended.
For 2016 Sascoc had a ridiculous policy which ignored continental qualification in most codes, including rugby sevens; the SA women stayed home that year.
That policy was voted out by federations in 2019, allowing Olympic hopefuls to get to the Olympics through the African qualifying competitions organised by their codes.
As the highest-finishing African team in the 2022/23 World Series, the Blitzboks should be considered favourites for the continental decider, where only the winner will book their ticket to France.
But Kenya are capable of springing a surprise if the Boks have not found their form by then. In a 14-minute match, anything can happen.
It’s obviously too early to panic because rugby sevens is a code where teams can make rapid improvements, but it’s also clear that Olympic fans cannot start counting on a podium finish from them.
The Mare Nostrum series of swimming galas in Europe also ended this past weekend, but unlike recent years, there was little SA representation.
Lara van Niekerk won the 50m breaststroke a couple of times, but she was the only local star in action.
The SA performances at the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, in July will be interesting, though right now SA’s swimmers are an unknown factor. Last year Van Niekerk’s 50m breaststroke bronze was the team’s only medal of the 2022 world championships.
All of this is unfolding soon after Sascoc announced a R66m Bidvest sponsorship for its Operation Excellence programme aimed at supporting athletes.
That couldn’t come soon enough.
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