Join Dave Usendorff as he sits down with Sunshine Tour veteran Jaco van Zyl for an in-depth conversation about the real challenges of professional golf. From the daily grind of tour life to the physical toll injuries can take on a player’s career, Jaco shares personal stories, hard lessons, and what it truly means to stay competitive year after year. This is a rare, honest look at life on the Sunshine Tour — the wins, the setbacks, and the relentless drive to keep playing at the highest level.
Whether you’re an aspiring golfer or a fan of the game, this interview offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the sacrifices and resilience required to chase greatness.
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playing golf professionally has got a few of its problems and one of my dear friends here Yakal you’ve been playing this game for a long long time and in that time you’ve come across a couple of challenges so we’re not going to talk about your mental state we’re going to talk about physical stuff I remember a couple of years ago you finished second in the Turkish Open you came out of that and you had a hand injury and how did how did that all work out and what happened yeah I mean it’s obviously it’s very concerning um you know you use your whole body to to do our work and um yeah I mean I got told diagnosed with a uh tendon and long story short it ended up being a fracture 4 months later So you know that was almost a year out of the game Um and yeah I mean it didn’t stop there I’ve had three knee surgeries Um I’ve had a spinal fusion and uh yeah I had to withdraw from this week um because of a pinched nerve in the spine again So it looks like I’m going to be under the knife again either Saturday or Sunday night And I think you know contrary to what a lot of people think I know you go to gym you train hard you stretch and it’s part of your routine and still these things happen I know you you’ve probably sort of like you know in the back end of this amazing career on the normal tour you’re getting ready for the Champions Tour but um but still you’re still doing all of these things despite what people think Yeah No you do Um you know you got to look after your body and you know it’s watching your weight and you know just really looking after yourself um you know it’s it’s it’s very different to your normal 8 to 5 job where you know you got a sore hand you still go in and you can still still do your work you know um we got a sore back we we got to take a rest and we got to take a break so yeah you do try and do the right things and work with bioineticists and you know do your proper preparation before you tear it up um but unfortunately there are things that are going to happen that’s out of your control well I think from a from a weekend golfer person you never see guys warm up and if they do warm up They’re warming up with a driver which is all against the grain But for the young players what is your advice to some of the young players that have aspirations of playing on the tour and at the same time are really making a career out of playing golf yeah I think you know when you’re young you you feel like you’re indestructible and you know you play rugby and you play tennis and you play cricket and you go run and you know you kind of do all of those things without warming up without because the body is not telling you to warm up But you know when you get to your mid-30s the body starts starts talking to you and um you know by the time you get to your mid-4s the the body’s shouting at you So you know I mean obviously you want to look after yourself for I mean I only started stretching really um late 20s so you know I’ve been doing it for a long time and like I say I’m trying to do the right things but um unfortunately things happen And then I think the probably the last point is you know over time you change your equipment your swing speeds change your ability to hit shots changes How important it is for you to have changed your equipment over time Yeah I know very important Um I think it’s more so from about 35 Um you know you start losing a little bit of flexibility You you try your utmost best to keep that flexibility but you know nature takes over and um you know your strength goes a little bit and your speed goes a little bit So you know there’s there’s plenty of technology to to keep you up and up and running Um you just got to stay with it Well that’s great advice from a gentleman who has played a long time on the toys a multiple winner He represented South Africa around the world and we really hope you get better soon Thanks Dave Appreciate it
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Excited 🎉🎉🎉