There’s a touch of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong about the PGA Tour’s long-hitting sensation of 2025, Aldrich Potgieter, and it regards the pronunciation of his name.
You like Pot-gaiter, I like Pot-heater,
You like Pot-geeter, I like Pot-jeeter.
The curiosity of all these complications are that they appear at such odds with the apparent simplicity of the golf he produces.
Because Potgieter is an example of the young golfer every college coach seeks in that he has sensational clubhead speed and hits the ball prodigious distances.
In his first season among the world’s elite golfers, the 20-year-old South African ranks second for clubhead speed (125.77 mph) and first for driving distance (327.6 yards). He has not wasted his raw material either, because he ranks second for strokes gained off the tee (+0.686).
For traditionalists it is tempting to conclude that the youngster with the bewilderingly complex Afrikaans name has a distinctly one-dimensional game, and it has to be said that he is undoubtedly hot and cold in terms of results with his 17 starts in 2025 having reaped four top-15 finishes and 11 failures to make the weekend.
Moreover, three of those four good efforts have come at venues well suited to golfers blessed with power from the tee.
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