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."
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.
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.
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.
