A solid final-round 66 in the Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour at Erinvale reignited Eugen Marugi’s career after a rather non-descript 2004 season. Last week, Marugi underlined his comeback at the Seekers Travel Pro-Am.
With back-to-back top-10 finishes, the 21-year-old Johannesburg golfer is finally back on the Sunshine Tour fairways, competing for titles.
First came Erinvale, where he tied for fifth after rounds of 68 and 72, topped by a final-round 66 that included a bogey on each nine, answered by six birdies and an eagle.
On to Dainfern Country Club, where the youth from Pilgrim’s Rest produced a low 66 in the second round to blast into contention. A 70 on the final day, including four birdies, four bogeys and an eagle, saw him finish in a tie for 10th on the final leader board.
This week, Marugi tees it up in the Bearing Man Highveld Classic, courtesy of merit performance and among the top players on the Sunshine Tour.
It would seem that the former shepherd has finally made the transition from the rough to the fairways, adjusting to the pace and pressure that is professional golf.
Since he joined the pro circuit in 2003, Marugi has been branded as one of the rising black stars of South African golf.
But the route to stardom has certainly not been paved with gold.
At the age of 10, Marugi ran away from home and found a home with a resident in Pilgrim’s Rest. A few years later, while searching for wheels for their wire cars with some friends, Marugi stumbled across the Pilgrim’s Rest golf course.
A part-time income as a caddie soon turned into a calling. Fascinated by the game, he fashioned clubs from bent copper water pipes, collected burnt balls from the fields around the course and started to practice in earnest.
Largely self-taught, he was soon spotted by members of the club and before long furnished with second-hand clubs. After joining the club at the age of 14-and-a-half, Marugi got his handicap down to scratch within seven months.
Next, the South African Golf Development Board stepped in and took over his coaching. It also entered him in competitive rounds and he played both in the Central Gauteng and Mpumalanga Junior provincial programmes.
As his game improved, sponsorships and invitations to tournaments overseas followed, but the sudden weight of responsibility and expectation was too big a burden for one so young and inexperienced to carry.
Marugi slipped from the fairways into a life of quick bucks, late-night parties and slack performances.
”I wanted to do what other 21-year-olds were doing. But you quickly realise that you can’t do that,” said Marugi. ”I was fortunate that my manager, Clifford Green, never gave up on me.
”He continued his support in spite of the things I got up to. He believed in me and stayed with me through all the bad times. I also received ongoing support from the Sunshine Tour. I made the decision to change because I didn’t want to let anyone down any more.”
It is still not moonshine and roses, but at least he is moving in the right direction. And, along the way, he is doing a bang-up job of restoring the relationships with people he let down in the past.
In May, Marugi recorded the only hole-in-one in the Capital Alliance Royal Swazi Sun Open and received R10 000 for his effort.
In an unexpected spin-off, Greg Kerr of TaylorMade sponsored him with TaylorMade irons, caps and gloves — a gift that Marugi credits as an incredible inspiration and one he reflects on every time he picks up his personalised TaylorMade bag.
There is still a long way to go, but this Mpumalanga youth has taken the first steps in mapping out his future, one he hopes will emulate his icons, South African stars Ernie Els and Retief Goosen. — Sapa