When Smokey Robinson sang on Tears of a Clown, ‘Don’t let my glad expression give you the wrong impression,’ he might have been singing about Doug McGuigan, one of the most jovial players on the Sunshine Tour.
McGuigan has reason to be jovial, with two wins on the 2017-18 Sunshine Tour schedule already. It’s the first time he has won twice in a season in a career that stretches all the way back to the 1991-92 Summer Tour.
He had his first victory as a professional back in 2003, in the Platinum Classic, and racked up five more up to and including the ISPS Handa South African Match Play in 2012. That was followed by a five-year drought, and he broke that with his win in August’s Vodacom Origins of Golf event at Highland Gate. Two months later, he was back in the winner’s circle with a victory at St Francis Links in the same series.
Life appeared pretty sweet.
That he has been able to play the way he has, holding his own on the Sunshine Tour at the age of 47 in an era where younger players are vying for honours, is probably paradoxically as a result of a series of personal setbacks and of the way he has weathered them.
It started last year in July when he lost his brother Geoff to heart attack. A month later, a man who had coached him during a sojourn in Canada, Norm Glowa, died. And a month after that, a trusted friend, his broker Trevor Traube also passed away. And, towards the end of the year, his father Frank was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
“It was just one thing after the other,” recalls McGuigan. “These were all people close to me, part of a support system that everyone has. My Canadian coach, in particular, was a father figure and mentor to me while I lived there.
“But all of this got me thinking about many things from a different perspective, as it would. I took stock of everything, and it became important for me to enjoy life more. I had become too serious before all this happened, and I couldn’t play the way I should.”
Despite all that, he finished in a solid 42nd spot on the 2016 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit. But he knew things should be better. Part of the reason he knew that was he had, like quite a few other Sunshine Tour professionals, moved down to George in search of a more amenable golfing lifestyle.
And his new surroundings and new friends proved just the tonic his career needed.
“I play golf every day now when I’m home,” he says. “I play with members of the interprovincial team from the Southern Cape, so the standard is very high.
“And, on a personal level, I feel as if I have landed up in a good place mentally. I didn’t grow up religious, but I am more so now after all the things that have happened to me. Not that I’m a good example,” he laughs. “I’m just a happier person. The only thing missing in my life is that I’m single.”
He’s also rekindled friendships with other veteran members of the tour, notably Hennie Otto, whom he credits for helping him through what were some dark times.
“I had a lot of support,” he says, “especially from my mother Sophia and step-father Peter Horn – and my sister Lauren, and my step-brothers Jonathan and Nicklaus Horn.”
It’s difficult to believe that McGuigan, who is known for an impish smile and infectious laughter, could have got to a place where he took things too seriously. But’s it’s perhaps less difficult to imagine how it happened with all the personal tragedy that befell him. Losing one’s personal pain in golf seems to make sense, if you’re a professional golfer.
“I used to practice a lot,” he says, “and I found my perspective was gone. I used to get angry about my play, and there was no sense of a bigger picture for me.
“But now that I have been able to take a step back, things just go better. For example, in my wins this year, in the final round of each one, I made big mistakes. At Highland Gate, I had a triple-bogey on the 12th and at St Francis Links, I had a double, on the eighth. And, in the past, I would have been steamed up about those, but, on both occasions, I was able to bounce back and go on and win. I don’t know if I could have recovered that way previously.”
At Highland Gate, he made two birdies on the way in to keep ahead of 23-year-old European Tour star Brandon Stone, and at St Francis Links, he followed his double-bogey with three birdies and an eagle to defeat 21-year-old Hennie du Plessis by two strokes.
Of course, it takes more than just a renewed attitude to win at golf, and McGuigan has rediscovered a part of his game that has always served him well. “I used to drive it exceptionally well,” he says, “but then my driver broke a couple of months ago. It’s been a bit of a battle since then, but I have found another one now that I’m happy with. The game feels easier off the tee now, and even though I’m not as long as some of the youngsters – but as long as I can get it on in two, it doesn’t matter what club I’m using to get there.”
And reconnecting with a past is also something that has helped him. “I’ve been made an honorary member of Kimberley Golf Club, where I grew up,” he says, “and I’m going to play there one day on my way to another Sunshine Tour event.
“It’s all part of getting out more than I used to, and getting away from being too serious.”
So, almost counter-intuitively, less practice and a lighter approach to the game have turned McGuigan into one of the most successful players on the Sunshine Tour currently.
But when he smiles, take a moment to remember how he got there.
