Dean Burmester has been growing an impressive reputation in recent months. The South African, who joined LIV Golf ahead of the 2023 season, claimed back-to-back DP World Tour wins later that year.
It got even better the Stinger GC player in April 2024 when he beat 2017 Masters champion Sergio Garcia in a playoff for his first LIV Golf win, in Miami – a feat that handed him $4m in prize money.
Burmester has also shown in recent years that he can compete in the biggest tournaments of all. He finished T22 at the 2022 Open at St Andrews, and was riding high on the leaderboard at the 2024 PGA Championship heading into the third round.
However, while Burmester’s on-course trajectory is clearly on the move fast, off the course, he’s lived a stable family life for many years, having been married for almost a decade.
Burmester and his wife, Melissa, tied the knot in November 2014, and they now have two children – Jordan, who is eight, and two-year-old Alexander.
Melissa keeps her life private, although she has a limited social media presence. However, on landmark dates, Dean has not been shy to use his social media platforms to praise her. Melissa’s birthday falls on 6 May, and in 2020, Burmester marked the occasion on Facebook, writing: “Happy birthday to my amazing and beautiful wife @melbee_22. Number 1 Mom and strongest woman I know.”
He sent her a similar message on Instagram for her birthday in 2023, writing: “Happy birthday to my amazing wife @melbee_22 through all the chaos there is always beauty. Never delay your happiness and you make me the happiest man I can be.”
For their seventh anniversary in 2021, he wrote: "To the love of my life…. Happy Anniversary. Thanks so much for putting up with me for 7 years, you are amazing and I will always love you."
Not much is known about Melissa, although she and the pair’s young family regularly support him at tournaments, including when he won the Sunshine Tour’s Tshwane Open in 2017 and the DP World Tour’s Investec South African Open Championship in 2023.
That has continued while he has been a LIV Golf player. The Burmesters are now based in Florida, and, in 2023, Dean told The Human Golf Show podcast that life on the circuit has freed up more time for him to spend with his family. He explained: “Family time on the LIV dynamic is super-cool. Because we're based predominantly in and around America, they can come on the weekends.”
Wherever Burmester's career takes him, one thing seems certain – Melissa and the pair's young family will be there to support him all the way.
