From Gary Player to Ernie Els, Bobby Locke to Charl Schwartzel, South Africa has a long and illustrious history of producing top class golfers, and with the new European Tour season teeing off at the Alfred Dunhill Championship this week, another man will be hoping to add his name to that list: Dylan Frittelli.
The 26 year old will take part in a full Race to Dubai season for the first time in his career after finishing eighth on the 2016 Road to Oman following an impressive nine top ten finishes in 18 Challenge Tour events.
The Johannesburger is looking to follow fast in the footsteps of last year’s South African graduate Brandon Stone, who won the BMW SA Open hosted by City of Ekurhuleni in just his second start as a European Tour member back in January, and Frittelli has high hopes for the current level of golfing talent in his home land.
“Golf in South Africa is definitely in a strong place right now,” he said. “I think there’s almost two waves out there right now – you’ve got Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel who are obviously our main two guys along with Branden Grace, they’re wave number one.
“Then in wave number two you’ve got Zander Lombard who’s just breaking through now, Brandon Stone and Haydn Porteous have obviously won on the European Tour this year, and I’d like to think of myself as being included in that group, along with other guys as well – Erik van Rooyen is a good friend of mine, keep an eye out for him.”
Frittelli will take great confidence from his year on Europe’s top developmental tour after his undoubted talent was finally rewarded with the consistent results it deserved.
A top five in the season-opening Barclays Kenya Open gave notice of what was to come before a run of third-eighth-second in July propelled him up the Rankings as the form player on tour.
The inevitable victory arrived a few weeks later at the prestigious Rolex Trophy, with further top tens in Kazakhstan and China securing his graduation long before the NBO Golf Classic Grand Final.
Now Frittelli is looking to carry that form onto the European Tour, and is aware of how beneficial some good early season results will be in the year-long bid to remain in the Race to Dubai.
“I’m confident I can take this form with me onto the European Tour, for sure,” he said. “I’ve already played a number of tournaments on the European Tour so I may be a rookie but I’ll have a big advantage over the other rookies having played 25 or 30 times there already.
“My aim is to take my game with me, make a lot of cuts and hopefully give myself a chance to win a few tournaments, and just keep playing well.
I'm confident I can take this form with me - my aim is to make a lot of cuts and give myself a chance to win tournaments
“The early season tournaments are important for all of us, but it’s a big advantage to be in South Africa. Obviously I feel at home there, and Leopard Creek, the Joburg Open, the Tshwane Open are all in my back yard so I’ll hopefully have some good form going into them.
“The Desert Swing in the Middle East is huge for everyone, the big guys on tour and the small guys who get into it, so hopefully I can make a lot of money early in the year to make things a lot easier for the rest of the season.
“I’m delighted with how 2016 has gone, it’s been a great year. At the start of the year I didn’t know how many tournaments I would play or where I would play or what would happen, but looking back on it now I played some great golf and I’m really proud of the way I performed.
“I think I’ve just executed a whole lot better this year. I had the experience, having played for three years prior to this one, but golf’s a game of ups and downs – I’ve had a few ups and a lot of downs and thankfully this year’s been up after up after up, so I’m really happy with the way I continued to get better throughout.”
To prepare for life as a professional golfer, Frittelli followed the American dream, studying at the University of Texas – where he teamed up with Jordan Spieth to thrive on the college golf circuit.
“Studying in America was great for me,” he said. “It gave me the time not only to expand as a golfer but to expand as a person too – I grew up a lot in the States, having to do your own laundry, balancing the books, all that stuff really prepared me for life on tour.
“It helped the transition to being a golfer, travelling and taking care of yourself. In college you have coaches and people to show you the ropes but it meant that when I first came on tour I knew what I had to do off the course to be able to excel on it.”
If 2016 is anything to go by, it may not be too long before Frittelli ends up paired with Spieth once again, going head-to-head down the stretch on the world stage.
