Johan Theron (31), who hails from the Lowveld, qualified for the SA Open for the first time this year, completing an incredible comeback to golf after nearly a decade away from the sport.

Theron earned his qualification for the Investec SA Open Championship on February 25 through the qualifier tournament at Mount Edgecombe Country Club. While many might claim that making the cut at any professional golf tournament is one of the most nerve-wracking things to do in the sport, playing a single round qualifier, knowing this is one’s only chance to qualify for a tournament, definitely takes the cake.

The man from the Lowveld teed it up on Mount Edgecombe’s ‘The Woods’ course on Tuesday with this in mind, along with the knowledge that only four players would be qualifying for the SA Open.

Theron was determined to showcase nothing short of his best golf, though, and didn’t let the pressure get to him. He started the round well, carding his first birdie of the day on the second hole.

He birdied the fourth as well to move to two-under for the day and put him in a good position going forward. Theron’s birdies dried up for the remainder of the first nine, but he still managed to remain at two under par at the turn.

He enjoyed a positive start to the back nine with a birdie on the 10th, but this was made null and void with a bogey on the par-3 11th.

Theron’s roller coaster continued with two consecutive birdies that helped him climb to four-under with a chance of qualification. Again, though, his birdies dried up and Theron had to hope that he was still within the top four come the end of the day.

As fate would have it, he found himself tied-third alongside three other golfers when the bell tolled and, with only two remaining spots available, two of the quartet would have to fall out during the play-off. The first to fall was Denmark’s Jacob Olesen, who was knocked out on the 10th hole. This left Theron, Ethan Smith and LB Boshoff in contention on the 18th.

Theron managed to hold his nerve alongside Smith to knock out Boshoff and secure the final two available spots.
For Theron it’s a dream come true. “To be able to qualify for the SA Open, which is one of our country’s unofficial majors, means so much to me.

Of course you don’t really want to be in a play-off to start with, but qualifying through a play-off makes it all the more sweet,” an excited Theron told Lowvelder after his round on Tuesday.

“For me it really is incredible to achieve this so early on in my return to golf.”

And the return he’s referring to? Well, in 2023 Theron decided to start playing golf again after a nine-year hiatus during which he didn’t play any form of golf, not even amateur.

Having grown up in Vereeniging, he started playing golf at an early age at Maccauvlei Golf Course and spent a lot of time playing alongside the Schwartzel family, which of course includes legendary SA golfer Charl.

He wound up playing in the world championships at the age of 11 and achieved a great deal before he decided to pack away his clubs at 21. His final achievement before electing to stop playing golf was earning his professional status in 2013, but it was not a year later that he and his father upped and left Vereeniging to take up farming between Barberton and Mbombela.

This brought his professional career to a premature end and Theron would not pick up a golf club for nearly a decade. But the bug bit again in 2023 and he started taking part in the Sunshine Tour Qualifying School events. It wasn’t long before he began making his mark, winning the pre-qualifier for the Zanaco Masters in Zambia.

That same year he received his card to play on the Altron Big Easy Tour, the tour a step below the Sunshine Tour. He took part in an SA Open qualifier in 2023, too, but finished 14th. Ultimately Theron finished 28th on the 2023 Big Easy Tour Order of Merit, and would go into 2024 with a partial exemption to the Sunshine Tour.

He qualified for and took part in the Mopani Zambia Open in 2024 and he finished a very respectable 40th. Theron enjoyed a successful 2024 and his return to golf has only continued to flourish.

He has high but realistic hopes for the SA Open at Durban Country Club this week. “I’ll be playing against some of our country’s best golfers around at the moment, and I really just aim to play my best golf and enjoy the experience,” he said. “I’m not particularly score- or result-driven this week. If I can make the cut and get a top-50 finish it would be great, but I’ll mostly just be looking to learn from the experience.”

Looking even further ahead, Theron hopes to earn full Sunshine Tour exemption by the end of the year, and to even find his way onto the Asian Tour as well.