JOHANNESBURG – Dean Burmester was wondering what many South Africans were wondering at some point this week. He was down near the first green, talking to Jon Rahm, looking back up the hill at the stand they had just stepped off.
“A little taste of the Ryder Cup,” he told Rahm. “This is about as good as it will ever get for me. Very special.”
The point wasn’t the comparison, nor the fact that Rahm added some context to the size of the crowd. Burmester didn’t even know the television microphones were picking up the conversation. The point was more that Burmester was daydreaming. Mentally levitating. He will never play a Ryder Cup and he knows it. At this rate, he won’t even play in a President’s Cup. But it was a bit like LIV Golf visiting his country Ryder Cup for the home team? Yes, it was a bit like that.
Burmester was equal parts mascot and player this week, swatting approach shots as often as he pounded his chest, dancing for the delirious crowd and spinning on machine boxes, his arms spread wide like Maximus Meridius in “Gladiator.”
It was a full week from the 36-year-old master, largely because the LIV model for massive international events worked again, much like it has in Australia in recent years. More than 100,000 tickets were sold, here in Johannesburg’s premier global metro, and they had a single patriotic squad to cheer on.
“I got a little tan from taking my hat off the whole time,” Burmester said moments after he finished. “It’s just something – I wanted to do good for the fans and I’m honored to show my appreciation everywhere I go. It’s amazing to have that kind of support, and they’re screaming down the fairways and stuff, and I just wanted to say thank you. That’s basically what I wanted to do. The more noise they make, the better.”
And they made noise.
or Party of South Africa harder than Australia? LIV Golf wanted to test that theory. Its events mimic festivals more than anything else these days. At least the ones that attendance records can vouch for. The template is clear: bring as many people as possible for golf, musical acts or sunshine and beer – whichever they want more – spread them out, fill them with Beastie Boys and enforce them according to the game’s traditional laid-back norms. It will feel different. It will cost a ton of money. It will stand out if the golf is good too. Was this the first time Burmester found thousands and thousands of fans walking with his band? Maybe! And maybe not. He’s been around the block. But we know how he felt about it.
“The best week of my life,” he said. And this after his team settled for second place. His teammate Branden Grace missed a birdie putt that would have pushed the Southern Guards into a playoff for the team event. Considering the rain-soaked course and fluid nature of the crowd, it’s probably best it didn’t.
Loud-mouthed Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie spent the morning stoking the fire, shouting to the cameras how his team were going to win on Sunday, and they were taking it early. What was once a nine-shot lead slowly dissipated over the course of the round and eventually collapsed as the South African boys added just a single birdie over their collective final 16 holes. Louis Oosthuizen finished with a bogey on the par-5. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was on hand to thank them for their service, but in the end he was making a TV hit with a smile alongside Bryson DeChambeau, who dashed their team’s dreams in regulation and then beat Jon Rahm in a playoff.
Asked how Sunday night would go for LIV’s South African players, who had been promised the biggest party in the country if they won, Louis Oosthuizen said he was off to bed. They were all tired. There is your difference between winning and losing.
“I’m ready for a brandy and a Coca Cola,” Burmester said, during what had to be his 30th interview of the week. The impromptu press conference was held in the first box, with his compatriots surrounding him from above for the last time.
“Every single one of us jumped on this first tee here and every single one of us walked away saying the exact same thing: we couldn’t feel anything. It was the best thing I’ve ever felt on the golf course. I’m just proud to be South African; that’s it.”
