Meet the Golf guru

North Coast golfers have the opportunity to refine their swings with Fairmont Zimbali’s Lodge and Resort’s head golf professional, Mario van Zyl.

Van Zyl joined both Fairmont Zimbali Lodge and Resort in November last year and has spent the past few months getting acquainted with the area after many years managing golf courses and teaching around the world. He originally hails from Johannesburg and studied a golf directorship and management degree in Pretoria.

“I grew up playing alongside guys like Charl Schwartzel and Thomas Aitken, but followed a different career path. Coaching is where my passion led me”.

He went to America during the summer of 2002 where he coached under the Julian Krinsky School of Golf umbrella in Philadelphia and Boston.  He began working for Troon Golf (which manages over 390 facilities worldwide) at the Montgomerie golf course in Dubai for over four years.

“My next assignment was in the Algarve region of Portugal where I helped open another masterpiece designed golf course by the great Jack Nicklaus – the Monte Rei golf and country club.” Van Zyl then moved across to the Grove in London, where Tiger Woods won the World Golf Championship in 2006.

“That was a fantastic venue. It was a massive operation with over 800 staff.” In 2008 Van Zyl helped setup and run the Butch Harmon School of Golf (BHSG) at the Els Club in Dubai. He spent the next five years teaching players of all levels there.

“We ran an unbelievably successful golf school. From running a junior program that had over 150 children between the ages of 4 and 17 (some of which fall under the top 20 in the world in their respective age groups), to coaching the large expat community of Dubai’s ladies and also young up-and-coming amateur golfers trying to make it big, we did it all. Guys like Rory McIlroy, Ernie Els, Lee Westwood and Paul McGinley (to name but a few) spent a lot of their time training in the ‘off-season’ working on their game with us at the BHSG.” When Van Zyl began looking for a new assignment he was contacted by the owners of IFA Hotels, who own Fairmont Zimbali Lodge and Resort.

“The main attraction was the prospect of being a part of the design and development team of yet another brilliant project, Zimbali Lakes Country Club and the excitement of applying my 13 years of industry experience to the local KZN market.”

The first order of business is to fully establish and run a golf department within the Fairmont Lodge and Resort in order to promote golf on Zimbali country club (and other courses) through the resort and its guests. To increase the awareness of this product, Mario opened a small boutique golf shop within the resort and runs his operation from there. Van Zyl also uses the Zimbali Country Club driving range to conduct all tuition. Besides the priceless coaching skills he gained from working with Butch Harmon and his son Claude Harmon III over the past six years, with the help of using the latest video technology, Van Zyl can analyse your swing to help improve your game.

“The second order of business will be to design and develop a state-of-the-art teaching academy before moving on to the Gary Player designed Zimbali Lakes Country Club.”

If you are interested in lessons, contact Van Zyl on Mario.vanzyl@fairmont.com or 071 633 6924.