Christiaan Bezuidenhout Facts: 20 Things To Know About The South African PGA Tour Golfer
Get to know the life and career of Christiaan Bezuidenhout better with these facts
Christiaan Bezuidenhout is one of the best South African male golfers of his generation, currently playing on the PGA Tour after multiple wins in his homeland and on the DP World Tour.
Get to know his life and career better with these facts about him...
Christiaan Bezuidenhout facts:
1. Bezuidenhout was born in Delmas, Mpumalanga, which is a small town to the east of Johannesburg.
2. He started playing golf when he was four years old as he grew up next to Delmas Golf Course.
3. His father was a scratch golfer.
4. When his talent started to become more obvious, he joined The Ernie Els & Fancourt Foundation and learned from the Big Easy for six years. "He [Els] has played a massive part in my golf over the years,” Bezuidenhout told Golf Monthly. "He helped me a lot financially. He was always someone who I looked up to growing up and playing the game.”
5. Bezuidenhout was poisoned at the age of two when he picked up a Coke can in the street and drank from it. The can actually had rat poison in it. Speaking of the incident, he said: "The hospital had to pump my whole stomach to get rid of all the poison, but the poison affected the whole nervous system in my body, and one of the long term effects of this led to me having a stutter. That stutter would eventually lead me to develop a severe case of anxiety."
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6. To help deal with his stutter and anxiety he took beta blockers, which led to him testing positive in a drugs test back in 2014 at the Amateur Championship. Despite admitting to the medication before the test, Bezuidenhout was banned for two years but the suspension was reduced to nine months.
7. He won in his first start back from his ban on the Big Easy Tour, a mini-tour in South Africa.
8. Christiaan turned pro in 2015 and won the Big Easy Tour Order of Merit in that year after winning his first two professional titles.
9. He won the 2017 Sunshine Tour Rookie of the Year award, known as the Bobby Locke Trophy.
10. He finished 25th at the 2017 European Tour Q-School to earn his card for the 2018 season.
11. In 2019 he had his first European Tour victory at the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucia Masters, which he won by six strokes from Jon Rahm at Valderrama.
12. He married his wife Kristen in 2021. They have a son together, who was born in November 2023.
13. He won the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit in 2020/21 after winning back-to-back Sunshine/European Tour co-sanctioned events at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and South African Open.
14. He finished a career-best 7th in the 2020 Race to Dubai thanks to those victories in South Africa as well as a 2nd at the Dubai Desert Classic, where he lost in a playoff to Australia's Lucas Herbert.
15. He went 455 holes without a three-putt during the 2022-23 PGA Tour season, the best of any player.
16. He made his Presidents Cup debut in 2022 for Ernie Els' International Team. He won 1.5 points from his two matches. Bezuidenhout made the team again in 2024.
17. He finished 2nd at the 2024 American Express on the PGA Tour but picked up the $1.512m first prize as the tournament was won by amateur Nick Dunlap.
18. His highest world ranking is 33rd.
19. He is a fan of English soccer team Chelsea FC.
20. Bezuidenhout played in the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Born | Delmas, Mpumalanga, South Africa |
Turned pro | 2015 |
Current tours | PGA Tour, DP World Tour, Sunshine Tour |
DP World Tour wins | 3 |
Sunshine Tour wins | 4 |
Spouse | Kristen (2021) |
Event | Tour | Score |
---|---|---|
2015 Centurion Academy Classic | IGT Pro Tour | -13 (2 strokes) |
2015 Sishen Classic | IGT Pro Tour | -12 (4 strokes) |
2015 Pro Squad Classic | IGT Pro Tour | -5 (4 strokes) |
2015 King's Cup | Big Easy Tour | -10 (3 strokes) |
2015 Glendower GC | Big Easy Tour | -1 (1 stroke) |
2016 Sun Fish River Challenge | Sunshine Tour | -8 (2 strokes) |
2019 Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucia Masters | DP World Tour | -10 (6 strokes) |
2020 Dimension Data Pro-Am | Sunshine Tour/Challenge Tour | -25 (1 stroke) |
2020 Alfred Dunhill Championship | DP World Tour/Sunshine Tour | -14 (4 strokes) |
2020 South African Open | DP World Tour/Sunshine Tour | -18 (5 strokes) |
Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!
Elliott is currently playing:
Driver: Titleist TSR4
3 wood: Titleist TSi2
Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1
Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW
Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58
Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5
Ball: Srixon Z Star XV
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