Less than a week ago, Nick Dunlap made history at the American Express by winning as an amateur on the PGA Tour and becoming the youngest player to achieve such a feat in over a hundred years. Well, this has not been the only record of the week. Just three days later, Aldrich Potgieter became the youngest winner of the Korn Ferry Tour. At 19 years, 4 months and 11 days, the player born in Mossel Bay (South Africa) won in the Bahamas and surpassed Jason Day with the record for precocity of the North American second division. In addition, the South African teenager also positions himself as the youngest winner of the PGA TOUR or the Korn Ferry Tour since Ralph Guldahl at the Santa Monica Open in 1931 (19 years, 2 months and 3 days). Almost nothing. Potgieter acknowledges that seeing Dunlap win in California was a spur and a boost to win in the Bahamas.
At TenGolf we have been able to talk to people from the environment and the work team of Potgieter and we convey first-hand what the South African player is like and his journey to his triumph in the Bahamas a few days ago.
The journey has a curious start to say the least. At eight years old Aldrich began his particular exodus, his journey in the desert, his search for the truth and that is that at that age he moved with his family with the intention of opening a Christian parish in the oceans in Australia. A trip that has lasted half a life since they did not return to their native South Africa until two years ago. He soon discovered his faith in golf.
Aldrich is a fighter in every sense and that is that at eleven years old, three years after his arrival in Australia, he was proclaimed national champion of Wrestling, you read correctly, of professional wrestling. He is a lover of sports in general and basketball and rugby in particular, but if there is a hobby that drives Aldrich crazy, it is fishing. There is no tournament that does not accompany his fishing rod and as soon as he can he escapes to try to fish. In his last two tournaments in the Bahamas he went fishing: in the first he caught two sharks, in the second he caught the tournament.
Of a cheerful, jovial and very familiar character, his father accompanies him almost everywhere in the world and with whom he enjoys playing cards tournament yes and tournament again. Those who know him define him as a sensible young man, very focused on what he wants and ambitious in his dreams: he wants to get to the PGA Tour as soon as possible and he is going to fight until he achieves it. At this rate it will be sooner rather than later. He had it close last year when he won the first phase of the PGA Tour School although a bad round in the first round of the School Final weighed down his chances of success. In fact, on the second day he signed 63 strokes and was one stroke off the course record at the Dye’s Valley Course at TPC Sawgrass. We repeat the age, 19 years.
The South African knows what he wants and when he is playing there is no possible distraction, in fact those around him know that he concentrates so much in his bubble that they can be talking to him a meter away that sometimes he does not hear the advice. It is not to flatter the youngster but in moments of high tension he manages the pressure well and hardly flinches, his father says that when Andy smells victory, he hunts it. That is a gift and he has already shown that he has it in spades.
If we focus on the Potgieter player we can say that he is from the new cradle of young golfers, tall and hitter. Although in this case he is a hitter like few others. He goes long, very long, to understand the level of hitter he goes as long as our Josele Ballester, we insist, very long. To put a but to his game, the South African has room for improvement in shots of 100 meters down, but playing so long when the South African putts well he positions himself in another league. In the first tournament of the year apart from catching two sharks, he suffered a lot with a new putter he had in the bag. In the second he returned with his usual Scotty Cameron and putted like the angels. What works better do not touch it.
Trained at the Louis Oosthuizen Academy, he won the South Australian Junior Masters in 2020, with a nine-stroke lead!! A year later he won the Western Australian Amateur and finished second in the Australian Boys’ Amateur. In 2022, Potgieter won The Amateur Championship at 17, becoming the second youngest winner in the history of the championship.
Aldrich Potgieter, a player we will hear a lot about in the coming times. A precocious fisherman on the Korn Ferry Tour and who we will soon see diving in the seas of the PGA Tour. Time will tell.
