{{ubiquityData.prevArticle.description}}
{{ubiquityData.nextArticle.description}}
THE TAKE By Michael Vlismas
CITY OF EKURHULENI, SOUTH AFRICA | In his first few months as a freshman golfer at the University of Texas, Dylan Frittelli wrote me an e-mail.
“I’ve settled in pretty well this semester and have already played two tournaments,” he wrote. “I won one of the tournaments. I played the final round with Rickie Fowler and was surprised at the small difference in our games. There is nothing much between the two, which gives me a load of confidence that I will use in the future.”
Rickie Fowler. Jordan Spieth. Justin Thomas. Cody Gribble. All golfers Frittelli would come across, play with as teammates, play against and sometimes beat. All golfers he wants to play against every week. All golfers he believes he is good enough to beat as a pro.
“My ultimate goal is to get on that PGA Tour, live in Austin, Texas, all year round and play as much golf as I can over there,” says Frittelli.
In 2018, the 27-year-old South African is expected to take his next big step towards achieving this goal after coming off his most successful season yet.
At the start of 2017, Frittelli was ranked 152nd in the world. He ended the year ranked 53rd with two European Tour victories. It was three places short of his objective of making it into the top 50 before the end of the year. But it hasn’t changed his goals for this year.
“Winning a major,” he said during last week’s BMW SA Open when asked what his focus will be in 2018. “If I get into four majors this year and get into contention, I do feel like I have a shot to win one of them. You look at Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka – they haven’t dominated majors but have taken their chances. They are my peers and guys I played with at college, so there’s no reason why I can’t do it. So yes, this year a big goal will be World Golf Championships and majors and trying to get one of those big wins.”
Frittelli is now very much the young South African golfer being spoken of after Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace.
And his confidence that he will adapt quickly to the challenge of the PGA Tour when he is given that opportunity is rooted in having backed himself through a lengthy slump, and he’s now reaping the benefits of that faith.
“My ultimate goal is to get on that PGA Tour, live in Austin, Texas, all year round and play as much golf as I can over there."
- Dylan frittelli
As an amateur in South Africa there was never a doubt that Frittelli would be a successful professional. He won a title at the Callaway Junior World Golf Championships and several South African amateur crowns.
When he moved to college golf and played alongside Spieth on the Texas Longhorns team, he was instrumental in carrying them to the 2012 NCAA Championship title. This after a bad final round in the Big 12 Championship a few weeks before cost him and his team dearly, and for which he was heavily criticized by Longhorns fans.
Spieth recognized the mental fortitude of his South African teammate when he said after the NCAA Championship win, “Whatever voices were in his head, today he’s stopped them.”
Frittelli turned pro after college and won in his first full season on the European Challenge Tour. Then came the slump. In 2014, he missed 14 cuts and in 2015 fared only slightly better. But he trusted himself and worked through that process, once again silencing the many voices around him.
In 2017, the final pieces of a puzzle Frittelli had been patiently building all fell into place. And the picture it has revealed is one of a young golfer now ready to push to the heights he’s always believed himself capable of reaching.
“I’ve always said I know I’m going to be a great golfer and have a great career, and it’s just a matter of time until I get there," Fritelli said. "I’ve always had the faith and the work ethic, and now the results are going my way.
“It could’ve been easy for me to look at the careers of Spieth or Thomas or Gribble and get frustrated and say, ‘But I played with and often beat these guys.’ But for me it’s just built my faith and confidence to believe I’m good enough to be one of the best in the world.”
As driven as he is, Frittelli has never been in a rush to reach the top.
“I’ve always had patience. I’m happy to take my time," he said. "My career has always been built around a slow and steady rise. I’m not a flash-in-the-pan kind of golfer.
“Now I’ve ticked this next box of my career, and it’s set me up to start looking at World Golf Championship events and majors.
“The opportunity is the big thing. This year I have some opportunities in majors and World Golf Championships to earn money that will count on the PGA Tour. But obviously looking at eight or maybe 10 events at most that count if I get a couple of invites is a very limited schedule to get a card. I know my game is good enough. Even if you win just one of those big ones you’re in on the PGA Tour for a few years. I know I can achieve it. You’ve got to believe in yourself. If you don’t believe in yourself then you’re wasting your time out here.”
Frittelli’s confidence is nothing new. As an amateur he qualified for his first South African Open in 2006. I asked him then if one of his goals that week was to get the autograph of his childhood hero, Ernie Els.
“Ernie has his schedule, I have mine. I’ll see him on the tee,” he said.
It took about 12 years for him to finally do just that – meet Els on the tee of an SA Open. Last Saturday, Frittelli and Els were paired together. It was the first time in his career he was playing with Els.
But what makes you realize that Frittelli’s confidence is not just empty arrogance but something more solid than this is that he happily admitted to being nervous about this tee time.
“I was really looking forward to it the night before, but it took me a while to get to sleep to be honest," he said. "It was great just to see how he goes about playing the game. He’s a class player.”
But with Frittelli, this emotion will never overshadow his primary objective – measuring himself against the best in the game and constantly improving.
“The nice thing was that I played well," he said. "I kind of got to show off in front of Ernie, and gain some respect.”
This year, Frittelli certainly looks set to earn widespread respect.
E-Mail MICHAEL