Golfer Dean Burmester says his wife helped him overcome a slump in form during the middle of the year by completing her maiden Comrades ultramarathon.
The LIV series player, a four-time winner on the DP World Tour, is competing in the Alfred Dunhill Championship that kicks off at Royal Johannesburg on Thursday.
“This game, just when you think you figured it out, knocks you down,” he said on Wednesday afternoon as players waited out a storm that had interrupted the practice round.
“You can never master this game. I don’t care who you are and how good you think you are — [world No1] Scottie Scheffler — it doesn’t matter, it will break you eventually and it’s how you deal with that, the ups and downs.
I’ve got a different frame of mind now ... I know the golf game’s going to knock me down again, but there’s tougher things that you can do in life
— Dean Burmester
“This year was certainly a learning curve for me. I had a great start to the season, had a real low in the middle of the season, really struggled for form.”
That’s when wife Melissa completed her first Comrades in 9hr 37min 17sec.
“That gave me perspective. If my wife can go and put herself through that and run 90km from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, then I’m just chasing a little white ball around, so I can do anything. That gave me a lot of perspective and then back into the season, boom, I picked up and played great.
“I’m excited, you know, I’ve got a different frame of mind now — and like I said, I know the golf game’s going to knock me down again, but there’s tougher things that you can do in life.”
His Stinger teammate on the LIV tour, Branden Grace, was looking forward to returning to competition on a course where he claimed his first professional triumph in 2010.
Obviously with the weather it’s been a little bit unpredictable the last couple of days, but it’s good to see the golf course. They’ve made some changes, some good changes.
— Branden Grace
“I haven’t been back here in a long time. It’s nice to get onto the golf course today. Obviously with the weather it’s been a little bit unpredictable the last couple of days, but it’s good to see the golf course. They’ve made some changes, some good changes,” he said.
For one, the first hole has been reduced from a par-five to a par-four.
“The last time I was here, that was a nice easier par five, it just got you into the golf course a little bit easier. And then there were a couple of tough holes after that, but now it … gets your attention from the first hole. The first three are pretty tough and then 10, 11, 12 are also pretty tough, so it’s going to be a good test, especially with the wet conditions. It’s going to play long.”
But he predicted the scoring would be low. It just depends on the weather. The next couple of days look good, but when it gets this soft I think a lot of times people are just going to hit a driver as far as they can on pretty much every hole.
“I think the one thing that’s really going to be tricky to control out there is the spin ... the spin’s going to play a big factor,” said Grace, who has nine DP World Tour wins and two PGA Tour victories. “You’re going to have to play for pin high, maybe a little past to make sure you can play for that sort of stuff.
“I think the guys are going to take advantage of it and that’s normally the case in South Africa — in Johannesburg, anyway. I think maybe 20 under, something like that at the end of the week, depending on how many rounds we get in.”
Louis Oosthuizen, another member of the Stinger franchise, is also in action this week.
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