Fore! Here comes Danie van der Spuy
This little guy would love to spend all day on the golf course if he could.
DANIE van der Spuy of Port Shepstone may only be four years old, but the golf bug has already bitten, in a big way.
He recently played in a SA Kids tournament at Amanzimtoti Country Club against mostly seven year-olds. Danie played well, finishing 12 shots behind the winner.
Although he didn’t place, he did receive a medal. The others joked he could be the next Tiger Woods. More like Ernie Els perhaps. They also couldn’t believe he was only four years old.
“Danie was ‘regtig in die sewende hemel’ when he joined all the other children, and ‘het homself gate uitgeniet’,” said his proud ouma Rita.
He grips the club reverse handed at this stage. but still manages to generate a surprising amount of power.
When Danie was a baby he had to stay indoors a lot as he kept getting sick. As a result his ouma gave him ping pong balls to play with.
Soon they were flying around the house. Anything bigger, and he would have broken things!
He comes from a sporting family and his eye-hand coordination was apparent early on. Rita believes only having a small ball to hit sharpened this skill.
Eventually his tonsils were taken out and his health improved dramatically. He took to smacking golf balls around whenever he could.
“He even loves to watch golf on TV,” she said. “He is very expressive and groans when a player hits it in the water.”
On the course, Danie knows when and why he has hit a poor shot. “My feet weren’t right,” he tells his ouma, who sometimes doubles as his caddy, but admits she does not know much about the game.
“I just tell him to aim at the ‘vlaggie’ (flag) and hit!” she said.
That’s some good advice that a lot of golfers could use. In the meantime, remember the name Danie van der Spuy.
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