Good fourth place for local youngster
'I am striking the ball well, I’m putting nicely and I don’t stress over the chip shots anymore'
KEMPTON Park amateur Ruhan van Dijk (19) shared fourth place at ERPM Golf Club last week in the IGT Tour’s Race to Q-School #1.
Benoni professional, Deon O’Riley, ran up an IGT Tour double, winning the event.
There are still 17 tournaments to go until the Sunshine Tour Qualifying School in March next year.
Van Dijk spent almost a year trying to come to grips with chipping yips, but a radical decision in August is starting to pay handsome dividends.
“My coach Doug Wood and I tried to correct the technical aspects of my chipping, but my brain was having none of it,” said Van Dijk.
“The result was a lot of big numbers, because the frustration feeds through to other aspects of the game.
“Michelle, another coach at Wanna Be A Champion Academy, suggested I changed my grip to left-hand low. It worked a little better but I was uncomfortable and it didn’t work for long. So I went and bought a left-hand lob-wedge and started chipping left-handed.
“I figured I couldn’t do any worse with the left hand than I was doing right-handed and it was such a relief when I finished in the top 20 at the Kyalami Challenge and the Centurion Challenge in August. Since then I’ve had a tie for 21st and joint 23rd, which are miles better than the results I’d been posting earlier this year.”
“I am striking the ball well, I’m putting nicely and I don’t stress over the chip shots anymore,” he said.
Van Dijk matriculated at Hoërskool Kemptonpark last year and is currently completing a Higher Certificate in Life and Environmental Sciences through Unisa.
