Nick Bester won the Comrades Marathon in 1991, and came second three times.
No, you’re not reading the wrong magazine!
Bester is also Louis de Jager’s father-in-law, and Louis de Jager has just completed one of his best years on the Sunshine Tour. He finished inside the top 10 of the Order of Merit for the second time and he came awfully close to winning his first big tournament when he finished fourth in the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.
There’s a consistency to his game now which gives a satisfying basis to the promise he showed when he won his first Sunshine Tour title back in 2009 when he was just 22. He took the Suncoast Classic at Durban Country Club. He’s won twice more on the tour, in 2014, when he won the Vodacom Origins of Golf event at the Wild Coast Sun and the Nedbank Affinity Cup at the Lost City ahead of the Nedbank Golf Challenge that year.
And where does the man they called Yster Bester, the Iron Man, Ultraman and Comrade Nick fit in to all of this?
Well, son-in-law De Jager has had the chance to absorb first-hand some of the lessons that can be learned from someone who had the strongest mind in all sports, and who, even now, can teach youngsters a thing or two about being in good shape.
“Golf is very mental and his game is totally different,” says De Jager. “But success comes down to the same thing. You’ve got to have a lot of patience, a lot of belief, real determination… you can make a long list of the similarities.
“I’ve learnt a lot from him. He’s told me a lot of stories about how he approached things. I like to get some knowledge from him. Maybe in the beginning, there was a bit of pressure. But as time goes on, the relationship just gets better and better. And it’s a real benefit to my career.
“Every time he sees me, he asks if I trained today and what did I do. He just wants to know if I’ve done my bit today. Because he believes whatever I do will help me – doesn’t matter what I do, as long as it’s fitness-related. So now, holiday periods are much better for my golf, because I’m always running, or doing something. When I get back, I’m actually quite sharp and fit.”
The learning experience has given him a new way of looking at things for his golf, and he approaches being ready for the game differently. “I’ve actually changed my own approach to fitness for golf,” he says. “Previously, I just wanted to look good, or do all the things you see in magazines. Now I’m working with Gavin Groves at HPC, and he’s doing a great job with me. We have nice structures set up there. And I also follow a lot of the top guys, and see what they do. So I’m up to date with the trends in training for golf.”
It’s more than just that which has changed things up for De Jager. “We’re working on the same thing consistently,” he says. “That’s brought a lot of structure to my game. I’ve got a plan that I’m working to and I’m sticking with it and that’s definitely brought a lot of consistency into my game.”
That consistency has reaped rewards. His fourth-place finish in Mauritius was his best finish in on the Sunshine Tour’s big tournaments since his third in the 2013 Tshwane Open. “Mauritius was very satisfying. I’d worked quite hard during the winter so it was nice to end it off with a good finish,” he says.
And that has fuelled a push for a victory in one of those big events, as well as a renewal of the desire to play the game on a bigger stage. “A win in one of the big co-sanctioned events would be very important,” he says. “That’s why I wake up every morning and why I practice. It’s definitely a goal to still go a long way in golf, so the results I’m seeing encourage me to keep on working hard and keep sticking to the plan.
“With my young family, it might make it quite tough if I have to travel if I get my European Tour card, but I can’t wait to see how to fit everything in! The concern is in the back of my mind, but we’ll cross that bridge once we get there.”
Crossing bridges when they appear in his life is one thing that he does better than he did when he won as a 22-year-old. “I won very young and I was a bit inexperienced, so I took a few things not as seriously as I should have,” he says. “Now, it’s nice having a family and being a bit more focused on exactly what you want to do and what you need to do.
“I think everything had to fall into place – a few things had to happen. But it’s never too late. Luckily in golf, everyone peaks at a different time, I believe. And your lifespan is a bit longer in this game, so I’ve still got lots of time and my best golf is still ahead of me.
“It’s a matter of keeping all the things together. My misses have been much smaller. I’ve always had good shots, but with the misses in the right areas, I can make better scores. My ball-striking has improved tremendously and so has my putting, I’ve always been a good short game player. I think the one thing to do for me is to keep maintaining the work on my long game, but it’s nice to be able to fall back on my steady short game.”
Knowing his strengths and weaknesses is another sign of maturity. “I’m only just above average off the tee,” he says. “Average on tour is probably between 280 and 290. I actually feel I hit it the perfect distance. I can reach all par-fives, and I hit it quite straight. You always want a little more distance, but its not necessary, not something I need to do. As your mechanics improve, and as my swing evolves, when I hit one well, it goes a bit further.
“I’m not frustrated when I’m up against guys who can hit it 340. There are other ways to gain strokes, and that’s where my short game and my pitching comes in. I can gain more by hitting it closer and making a few more putts than hitting it long.”
The long game was what Bester was in. And it’s what is son-in-law Louis de Jager is in, too.
