First published in Compleat Golfer March 2024 edition
He’s never been one to play it safe, and it’s that which makes Yurav Premlall such an intriguing prospect amongst the youngsters currently making their way on the Sunshine Tour.
Perhaps most famously in his young career so far, being aggressive nearly cost him his shot at winning a major trophy: “I almost lost it by being too aggressive,” he remembers about winning the Freddie Tait Cup for the leading amateur in the 2021 South African Open Championship at Gary Player Country Club at Sun City. He closed with a 75 there after his first three rounds of 70, 69 and 72, but he held on to win the trophy after four attempts.
“I’ve never been one to play safe golf,” he says. “Maybe I’m all for percentage golf, but especially when I’m playing very well, I’m very self-confident, so the aggression is always going to be there.”
In a game where, for too long, the approach to winning has been to try and make the fewest errors, his approach is refreshing – and made for television and great live viewing.
It means he doesn’t back down in the face of a challenge, even if the odds seem insurmountable. “I’ve always had a lot of determination and grit,” he says. “I like it sometimes when the chips are down because it brings out the best in me; it always has.
“I always enjoy playing golf courses that are a bit tougher because it’s a lot easier to gain shots, especially if you’re playing well and if you’re not going be afraid. It’s going to be right in front of you and you’re going to sign for a high score if you don’t take it on.”
Going for it helped him become the youngest amateur to ever qualify for the SA Open back in 2018 at the age of 15 years and five months. He also become the youngest to make the 36-hole cut, and he joined Jovan Rebula and Wilco Nienaber as the only amateurs playing in the weekend. He eventually finished in a share of 43rd behind winner Louis Oosthuizen, and Rebula won the Freddie Tait Cup that year.
“It was awesome,” he recalls. “That’s definitely one of my highlights to date. And then the Freddie Tait always eluded me for the times that I played it up till 2021. That year, I had to qualify again because I obviously hadn’t played great that whole year and to actually go through qualifying and then end up winning Freddie Tait was very special.”
Getting through adversity has stood him in good stead in what has been a somewhat challenging start to his professional career on the Sunshine Tour. He’s had just five top-10s in his career since he turned professional – four of them in 2023 and one this year.
Two of those top-10s have come in the Mediclinic Invitational, where he finished in a share of fifth last year and in a share of third this January for his best finish on the Sunshine Tour. “I guess it was played on two golf courses I’ve always played well on historically,” he shrugs. “I’ve won the Harry Oppenheimer Trophy twice at Maccauvlei. And even during my career as an amateur, every time I play the Oppenheimer, I’ve always been in the top three, so it’s definitely a golf course that suits my eye very well. And Centurion also. I’ve always played very nicely around there. So I guess it’s just very fortunate that both golf courses are just places my eye really suits very well.”
His first top-10 finish on the Sunshine Tour came at the Dimension Data Pro-Am at Fancourt. “I’ve always loved it as a place,” he says of Fancourt. “It’s one of my favourite places to go play golf. The golf courses, I’m a big fan of them. I love the speed of the greens, the scenic routes. It’s just a place I’m very comfortable playing.”
Those top-10s are part of the process of settling down on the Sunshine Tour. “It has been a tough transition,” he says of the change to the ranks of the professionals. “It’s hard to just find your feet again because you’re trying to get back to the top of the leaderboard and just kind of playing the first few events and obviously not playing as good as I’d like to, you’re starting to be middle of the pack and on the cut line again. It’s a lot easier for some reason when I see my name at the top of the leaderboard than towards the middle of it.”
He’s smart enough to see the process as a necessary apprenticeship. “There are a lot of lessons in the last year that I’ve obviously learned through travel, just being with different people who’ve obviously been here for a longer time and just, you know, thinking of different ways to get better at the end of the day. So, I mean, you have to pay for school for your whole life to get the rewards it offers.”
Part of paying for school is seeing his peers from his amateur days making the step up and getting onto circuits where he knows he belongs. It would be easy to be envious of his old mate from interprovincial playing days, Casey Jarvis, who has graduated to the DP World Tour after a stellar rookie season on the Challenge Tour.
“Casey was my foursomes partner like forever,” says Premlall. “We’ve played golf since we were basically seven, eight years old together.
“But it would never be frustrating for me to see him doing well. It’s a lot of encouragement for myself because I mean he’s obviously the person I’ve grown up with playing week in and week out, and going head-to-head. We’ve always had some great battles in amateur golf. So, it’s more of a sign for me that it’s definitely possible. Because he’s a peer of mine. I know I’m not that far off. If I do the right thing I’ll obviously be in a very similar place at the end of the day. But it’s definitely a good sign of encouragement and something that’s definitely going to push me a little bit through the year.”
Premlall was born in KwaZulu Natal and moved to Johannesburg when he was five. “I’m an only child, so my parents have always been very supportive of me,” he acknowledges. “They always want the best for me. And they are probably my harshest critics too, and in a way I need them to be that because if you’re not going to get the truth at some point, you’re really going to benefit from criticism. My parents, Rakesh and Ishana, are definitely my rock at the end of the day.
“I was probably about three or four years old when I started off just beating balls on a range with my dad when he went to one of the driving ranges where we lived. Once we moved to Johannesburg, I became a member of a team at a club. Being like eight years old, I wasn’t really there for golf. I was just kind of making a mess of things, having a good time as a little junior. And then once I started getting competitive, playing as a kid, then slowly progressed from there.”
He plays out of Glendower, one of the best courses in the country, and he has fitted into a place within the stable of coach Grant Veenstra. “I work at the Grant Veenstra Academy at Ebotse, and that’s the mainstay of my coaching. He’s got a hell of a team of players which goes to show how good he is. I’ve worked with him for a couple of years now and I trust him wholeheartedly with my golf game.”
The adventure is still new enough that Premlall doesn’t have any concrete plans to try and step up to one of the big tours abroad. He has enough on his plate negotiating his way around the Sunshine Tour, looking to finish as high as possible on the order of merit, and chasing the chimera of a maiden professional victory.
But he does have dreams. “I’d like to be playing in America at the end of the day,” he says. “I’ve always loved watching the PGA Tour. I like the style of golf that America offers. It’s very similar to what I grew up to playing, like a golf course like Glendower. So, yeah, my dream would definitely be to be playing in America.
“There is the Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying School as a way to get on to the PGA Tour. Right now, it’s still early in the year, so it’s kind of just an idea at the back of my head. We’ll see how the year goes and how I progress. The opportunities will always be there.
“Like my coach always says, if you play well, it will take care of everything.”
And he will play fearlessly, of course.
