Hennie Du Plessis (left) congratulates Michael Hollick after his fellow South African’s winning eagle.
Luke Walker, Getty Images
It is not essential for a rookie to be young.
Michael Hollick, a 39-year-old from South Africa, is a first timer on the DP World Tour this season and he remained pretty much unheralded ahead of last week’s BMW International Open in Germany.
In truth, his dramatic victory at Golfclub München Eichenried is unlikely to transform that situation, but he deserves his moment in the sun.
Hollick, the 54-hole co-leader with Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger, was trailing his compatriot Hennie Du Plessis by three strokes before Du Plessis bogeyed the 17th hole in the group ahead. Hollick was still two back as he stood on the 17th tee whereupon he completed the sort of clinical finish most expect of professional golfers but few ever witness.
First, his 5-iron at the 218-yard par-3 penultimate hole settled 6 feet from the hole and he drained the putt to trim Du Plessis’ lead to one stroke heading to the last.
And then, after finding a good angle from the final tee, another 5-iron from 243 yards at the par-5 18th left him 19 feet for an eagle-3. His putt never looked like missing.
“Thirty-nine years old and living my dream, can’t ask for much more than that really.”
Michael Hollick
An 18-under-par 270 total left him one clear of Du Plessis, who settled for par at 18, and four ahead of Wiesberger.
It was an astounding performance from the Durban native who turned professional relatively late at 25 and went nine consecutive years on South Africa’s Sunshine Tour without once cracking the top 50 in the rankings.
Four years ago he metaphorically packed his clubs in the cupboard and took up a coaching job, but the dream never quite faded. “I played about 10 times that year,” he said after his triumph in Munich. “I did well enough to think I wasn’t done.”
The turning point came in early 2024 when he won the Zimbabwe Open. With confidence boosted he added two victories last year which, via his seventh-place finish in the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit, earned him a DP World Tour card.
He opened this season with a trio of top-10s in Australia, Mauritius and on home soil, but thereafter encountered trouble. “The first year out there is tough,” he said.
“Everywhere is new and everywhere is a new country, but it’s awesome because I’m doing something I never thought I was going to get the chance to do. Thirty-nine years old and living my dream, can’t ask for much more than that really.”
Hollick admitted that he went to bed on Saturday night thinking that it could be cool to make an eagle-3 to win the tournament.
Dreams, it turned out, can come true – even for old rookies.
Matt Cooper
