Ockie Strydom Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

PGA Championship 2023: Ockie Strydom has the coolest name at Oak Hill, and his story’s pretty good, too

Golf Digest Middle East — Wed, 17 May 2023 07:48:36 +0000

Ockie Strydom. Andy Lyons

At age 38, World No. 144 Ockie Strydom of Johannesburg, South Africa, is playing in his first major this week at the PGA Championship, and he came to Oak Hill the hard way. This isn’t a club pro who won a qualifying event, or the recipient of any other kind of special exemption; this is a lifelong tour pro who has been grinding in Africa and Europe for the better part of two decades, waiting for this kind of breakthrough. If you knew him before now — and you probably didn’t — it’s because last December, he won his first event on the DP Would Tour at the Alfred Dunhill Championship after a whopping 19 second-place finishes in his career. This is a man who has almost been there more times than he would like to remember — and who spent a long part of his career wondering if he would ever arrive.

About that name: Ockie is short for Ockert, which is also his father’s name. When his mother wanted to distinguish between them, she would shout “Ockie,” and the son would know it was meant for him. Strydom is an Afrikaans name, a derivative form of the Flemish Strijdonk, meaning there are likely Belgian roots there. It was Afrikaans he spoke to his wife and two children after playing his Tuesday practice round and spending time on the range, and it’s an Afrikaans accent that colours his English when he speaks through a thin beard and a pair of reflective sunglasses.

“There was a time when I was like 31, 32, when I thought: ‘This is not going to work anymore,’” he said. “You’re trying and you’re trying, but there’s nothing, no results. The harder I worked, the more I tried to be a perfectionist, and you can’t do that in this game. And luckily my wife Marizanne said to me: ‘You’re good enough. Just grind it out.’”

That support — Marizanne is there when he needs her, but she will also tell him when he’s screwing up, he admitted — along with the physical and mental coaching from Doug Wood, kept him afloat. Still, it would be many years before the big breakthrough came at the Alfred Dunhill Championship, when he set the course record with a third-round 63, and held on to defeat Adrian Otaegui by two. Three months later, he intended to skip the DP World Tour’s Singapore Classic when Marizannne once again intervened and almost insisted that he should go — “It could be your week.” Once again, she was right, and this time his 63 came in the final round of a one-shot win over Sami Valimaki.

That propelled him inside the top three on the International Federation Official World Golf Ranking List, a new exempt category that landed him here in upstate New York. He is also exempt into the Open Championship in July, with an outside chance of qualifying for the US Open, too. He’s ninth on the DP World Tour Race to Dubai standings, with a PGA Tour card dangling in front of him if he were to stay among the top 10 players on that list who aren’t already PGA Tour members as well.

When asked how he found the resilience to keep playing despite years in the wilderness, he could only laugh. “Like my dad said to me, he didn’t raise quitters,” Strydom said. “And he told me, he worked his entire life for me to be here.”

Now the elder Ockert, who ran his own engineering business and introduced his son to golf just shy of his 40th birthday in Cape Town, will get to watch him fulfill a dream and play in a major championship. You wouldn’t necessarily know it to talk to his son — he’s just a normal guy who likes fishing and has finally fulfilled his potential — but there’s a deep-lying resilience that brought him to the big show at last.

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Ockie Strydom goes in search of third DP World Tour title of the season at SDC Championship

Golf Digest Middle East — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 12:53:10 +0000

Ockie Strydom believes St Francis Links “owes him one” as he goes in search of a third DP World Tour title of the season at the inaugural SDC Championship.

The South African is among a strong home contingent in a field assembled from around the world as the co-sanctioned DP World Tour and Sunshine Tour event makes its first visit to the venue in the Eastern Cape.

Strydom claimed his breakthrough DP World Tour title at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in his homeland in December and followed that with a second win in six starts at the Singapore Classic last month.

? Alfred Dunhill Championship
? Singapore Classic@OckieStrydom is seeking a third win of the season this week in South Africa.#SDCChampionship pic.twitter.com/Dkl0rzOxLM

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) March 14, 2023

He arrives for the first of two back-to-back co-sanctioned events in South Africa ranked fifth in the Race to Dubai Rankings and top of the Luno Order of Merit on the Sunshine Tour.

The 38-year-old finished second at the Jack Nicklaus Signature Course in St Francis Bay at a Sunshine Tour event last October and is aiming to go one better this time around.

“I’ve done well on this course in the past,” Strydom said. “I feel like this course owes me one and hopefully that’s this week.

“There are a lot of good players here, but we’ve all got the same job — to keep it low and under the wind.”

The weather forecast predicting gusts of up to 40mph for Thursday’s first round.

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DP World Tour: Ockie Strydom produces birdie blitz to win in Singapore

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 12 Feb 2023 12:13:12 +0000

South African Ockie Strydom fired a sizzling 63 in his final round to win the 2023 Singapore Classic.

It was a second DP World Tour win in six starts for Strydom after he managed nine birdies and no dropped shots on his way to the low round of the week and a 19-under total.

That was good enough for a one-shot victory over Sami Välimäki, who looked on course for the win midway through the final day, with Marcel Schneider, Jeunghun Wang and Alejandro del Rey on 15-under.

Strydom was four shots off the pace overnight with Wang and Del Rey out in front at Laguna National Golf Resort Club.

While Wang never really got going, Del Rey threatened to run away with it with three straight birdies kicking off his Sunday before a double bogey at the sixth put the brakes on.

Välimäki was the one bursting through, posting birdies at the first, third, fifth and sixth. He picked up another at the eighth and by the time he nailed a 30-footer for his sixth gain of the day at the tenth, he was three shots clear.

A fist pump followed and Välimäki looked unstoppable at 18-under but in the blink of an eye the lead was back down to one. He was short with his approach to the 12th and slack with his third, walking off with a first bogey since the third hole on Saturday.

Up ahead, Strydom tapped in for his sixth birdie of the day at the par-five 13th to get to 16 under. He had already gained shots at the first, third, fifth, seventh and ninth

The South African climbed into a share of the lead when he made it back-to-back birdies at the 14th but Välimäki was back in front after taking advantage of the 13th. His eagle attempt all the way across the green left a tap-in for him to go out on his own again.

His birdie putt at the long 14th stayed above ground but Strydom missing his own attempt from around nine feet at the 15th kept Välimäki in pole position.

But Strydom was far from finished. He rolled in a tricky downhill putt for birdie at the par-four 16th to share the lead once more.

It looked like advantage Strydom when Välimäki fired his tee shot at the 16th way right, over the cart path leaving a blind approach, but he recovered brilliantly, only to miss the birdie attempt from a few feet.

Strydom left himself a tricky up and down when he went through the green with his second to the par-five 18th but he held his nerve, jabbed it into the banking and rolled it stone dead.

That brilliant birdie set the target at 19-under, leaving Välimäki heading up the last needing an eagle to win and birdie to tie.

The Finn was short with his approach and could only manage a par.

Simply sensational ?

Under pressure @OckieStrydom produces this at the final hole.#SingaporeClassic pic.twitter.com/RMPOw2OhQ9

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) February 12, 2023

Looking back on his touch of magic at the last, Strydom said: “It’s a funny one. I said to my caddie that it’s either got to go up in the air and if you hit a bit behind it, it’s wet.

“I took a wedge, it came out absolutely phenomenal. I didn’t think it was coming out that good. But it did and ended up where it was.”

Strydom’s maiden win, at the Alfred Dunhill Championship, was back in December and helped him get over the line.

He said: “It’s a mindset that’s changing at the moment. When you’ve been in that situation before and you know you can do it again.”

He added: “I was thinking about not being here this week. Hitting it so badly. My coach flew in and my wife said to me, ‘listen, maybe this is your week’. And look what happened, it’s my week.”

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Journeyman with 19(!) runner-up finishes claims breakthrough DP World Tour victory

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 11 Dec 2022 18:33:28 +0000

By Ryan Herrington
If there were moments in Ockie Strydom’s career where he wondered if this was as good as it gets — a regular gig on the Sunshine Tour while making the odd start on other mini-tours and an occasional appearance on the DP World Tour — he kept them to himself. The burly 37-year-old South African put on a brave face in the wake of runner-up finish after runner-up finish. Nineteen times he had walked away from a tournament as a professional having be beaten by just one golfer, the saving grace being a victory in August 2019 at the Vodacom Origins Sishen.

But on Sunday at the Alfred Dunhill Championship, a co-sanction event between the DP World Tour and Sunshine Tour, there was no more stoicism needed. A course-record tying 63 the day before at Leopard Creek Country Club in Malelane, South Africa, had the 384th golfer in the World Ranking in a share of the 54-hole lead. Making the turn in one over after a double bogey on the ninth hole, Strydom bounced back with four birdies over a five-hole stretch on the back nine, pulling away from the field with a three-shot lead. A final-round 69 left him at 18-under 270 overall, two shots clear of runner-up, LIV Golf’s Adrian Otaegui.

Interestingly, Strydom’s emotions were kept in check in his post-round interview. “It’s nice. I am sure my wife and parents are at home crying,” he said, soaked with champagne rather than tears. He lone sign of nerves came from long drags on his vape walking up the 18th hole.

A moment to remember for Ockie Strydom ?

His first win on the DP World Tour!#DunhillChamps pic.twitter.com/AufBvfPDDi

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) December 11, 2022

The win earned Strydom €255,000 (his biggest previous DP World Tour pay day was €53,200) as well as full membership on the DP World Tour. “I think my plans just changed a little bit,” he joked, noting the need now to start looking for flights to the UAE, there the tour plays a handful of events in January to restart the 2022-23 season.

Strydom had played in 38 previous DP World Tour events, making the cut just 19 times. He had two top-10 finishes, including a T-3 showing at the South Africa Open in 2011, two years after turning pro.

“I’m just happy,” he said, noting that the victory came in a part of South Africa, near his home in Kempton Park, where he’s comfortable.

“It’s the bush. I’m calm in the bush. My first win was in the bush and now we’re back in the bush.”

It was a rare week of OWGR points for some LIV Golf players as Laurie Canter, Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace joining Otaegui in the top 10 in South Africa.

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