Home hero Jean Hugo relishing Stellenbosch return 27 years after amateur glory

It is 27 years since Jean Hugo lifted the Freddie Tait Cup at Stellenbosch Golf Club but the Sunshine Tour veteran remembers it like it was yesterday.

The award is handed out to the low amateur at the Investec South African Open Championship and its roll of honour reads like a who’s who of South African golf, with Major winners Bobby Locke, Ernie Els, Trevor Immelman and Charl Schwartzel among the home heroes to have their name on the trophy.

In 1999, 23-year-old Stellenbosch native Hugo arrived at his home club to play in his second South African Open as the South African Amateur champion and he has not missed once since.

Now 50 and a 20-time Sunshine Tour winner, he returns to his home town, full of pride that it will once again play host to his national open.

“I grew up there, I learned my golf,” he said. “I moved up to the Johannesburg area so I've got a club there which I represent but Stellenbosch is like my second club.

“My first rounds were there. I started golf at the age of 13 or 14 and I joined there. I went to school and university there and we played club championships there.

“When I’m on holidays we play there, one of my best friends is the golf director there, the connections are all over.

“When I talk and say I’m going home, I'm going to Stellenbosch.

“1999 is a long time ago, I played in that SA Open as an amateur still with Ernie and Ian Woosnam and Bernhard Langer and those boys. I have so many fond memories of playing in that SA Open.

“I finished top ten so I'll always remember that.”

The town of Stellenbosch, close to Cape Town in South Africa’s Western Cape, is renowned for its sporting heritage and is home to the Paul Roos Gymnasium, named after the national rugby union captain from the early 20th century.

Stellenbosch, which has since become synonymous with the Springboks, is also home to its namesake university and Hugo was a student at both.

Growing up, his father encouraged Jean and his brother to play both cricket and rugby and along the way Hugo would play alongside and against some future greats of both sports.

“I had an awesome time playing cricket and rugby which my dad encouraged me and my brother to do,” he said. “There’s nothing better than the pride of a team.

“I played under-19s cricket and that was my last game ever. I played with Mark Boucher and Neil McKenzie and Makhaya Ntini at the 1994 Nuffield Week.

“At school rugby-wise we had a great team and a great league to play in: Corne Krige was there and Robbie Fleck and Percy Montgomery. So we had a great XV for the Craven Week in 93 and 94 so those were special days.”

Hugo was still playing rugby when he won the 1998 South African Amateur Championship but it was becoming clear which path he would take.

“The boys were getting too big and strong and gymming, that wasn’t my scene,” he added with a chuckle.

The decision would prove to be a good one as Hugo turned professional in June 1999 and made professional debut on the biggest stage of all at The Open.

An invite to the Zimbabwe Open later that year saw him make his professional debut on the Sunshine Tour and a maiden victory secured his playing privileges – he has had them ever since.

With a sporting pedigree, South Africa’s biggest amateur honours in the bag and a Major debut and first professional win already secured, it looked like things were coming fairly easily to Hugo.

But he would be the first to admit you need a little help along the way.

“I had a lot of support,” he said. “Mr (Johann) Rupert looked after a lot of golfers and he still does. He’s a great inspiration and what he’s done for all our sports in South Africa. It was good to know him at a young age. He went to the same school as me and they were watching rugby as I was playing, I didn’t even know that.

“I had Ernie’s friendship and support from early on as well. I was with IMG at the time and my manager at the time Gary Todd is now our tournament director and he’s a good friend of Ernie and caddied for him. So we had a few rounds together and we saw each other a lot. He was obviously already on a different level by then having won the Majors.

“I wouldn’t say it came easy, it came unexpected as well.”

While exempt on the Sunshine Tour, Hugo’s eyes initially turned to Europe and with a win at the Volvo Finnish Open, he graduated from the HotelPlanner Tour and finished 34th on the rankings in his debut season.

He has fond memories of his time on the DP World Tour and graduated from the Qualifying School in 2015 to earn a third full campaign but is happy to admit in recent years his priorities have changed with two children now entering their teenage years.

“I love spending time with my kids,” he said. “When they were younger and I was away there were sometimes photos that I haven’t seen because I was away that much so I decided I didn’t want to miss out on that much. Being home for me and being a family man and a good husband, that’s more important for me now.

“Early on I had a great season or two out there, some great times travelling the world. The passion is still there but it’s just redirected. For me, it’s more important to stay in touch at home.”

At home on the Sunshine Tour he is unquestionably one of the greats, sitting comfortably inside the top ten for all-time wins and and still going strong with a victory as recently as 2024.

He missed out on full Legends Tour status by one spot at the Qualifying School in January and while Hugo admits that was “heartbreaking”, he is happy to continue making an impact on the Sunshine Tour.

“It’s become very competitive on our tour, the boys are young, they’re strong and they’re good,” he said. “Golf RSA has done a great job so the amateurs come out straight away, play our tournaments and perform well so to have won in four decades, it’s brilliant.

“It’s not a thing I think about all the time, you just want to get better or stay consistent and look after your body as long as you can. Being 50 is not a joke.

“My talent still has me here but it’s hard work behind the scenes, more about looking after your body than anything else.

Notable Freddie Tait Cup winners

“I’m very proud. There are a few of us that have been around for this long and are still performing so I don’t look at it as being special.

“The consistency the last few years has been great and to have won as recently as 2024 and have a few chances since, it’s good, you need to win still, you don’t just want to be part of the pack.

“This is my home, until I put my clubs in the garage this is where I’ll play, I just thought with Darren Fichardt doing so well and my other good friend Keith Horne encouraging me to come and play on the Legends Tour, I just missed out on a good start to senior golf.

“I’ll try and play as many as I can but it’s going to be tough so I'll focus here and then do the odd week there if I can.”

Which brings us to this week and South Africa’s national open returning to Stellenbosch for the first time since Hugo’s Freddie Tait Cup win all those years ago.

At 733rd in the Official World Golf Ranking and in a field that contains Major Champions and players battling it out at the top of the Race to Dubai Rankings Delivered by DP World, Hugo admits he is managing his expectations this week.

One advantage he may have is course familiarity, although the layout is much changed from 1999, with Hugo, Els and Hennie Otto the only players in the field who were also present that week.

The changes are more subtle than you may expect over such a long period of time, however, and Hugo is glad the course has not simply been “Tiger-proofed” with the addition of length.

“The game has evolved so much,” he said.

“The biggest criticism in 1999 was that if you missed that fairway it was tough to get out of the first yard or two but if you hit it wide it was open. Since then they’ve grown the wide stuff and it’s very thick.

“They’ve still got the trims on the side of the fairway which is going to be a challenge because the greens will be firm and they’re quite small. They’ve put some emphasis on being a fair course outside of the fairways, try and make that tough for the people who think they can go wide.

“The tee boxes were always back there, we never used them but they were always back there and they’ve built a few new ones which makes a few holes very special and long.

“The eighth and the 14th which are now par fours were always par fives and depending on the wind they will be very challenging, one will go the opposite direction to the other so one will play very long and one will be shorter.

“You have to evolve with the game, the guys hit it so long but it’s always built around the wind. On a nice day you can really shoot low but on a windy day it’s tough.

“It’ll be a new course for everybody since we last played it.”

Hugo may be entering the twilight of his professional career but he has no intention of stopping and is excited by the potential of a full, shorter schedule on the Legends Tour.

And until the day comes when he puts the clubs in the garage, he will be using all the experience of a professional career that has seen him rack up wins and play with the best.

“I should have planned my career better, I just took it as it came,” he says when asked if he would have any advice for the Jean of 1999. “Because I won my first one I thought this is going to be nice and it’s going to be a nice smooth ride but it’s never.

“I should have worked harder when I was younger like I do now. I’m a more complete golfer now than I used to be but I miss the flair and the talent that got me there. The flair is always one of the things that make people stand out and you kind of lose it when you’re older.

“I wish I had the flair now that I had when I was younger but I wish I had the head I’ve got now then.”

That flair and that brain has given Jean Hugo a career that is the envy of most – and it is certainly not over yet.