SPOTLIGHT ON...
Full Steam
AHEAD
Jovan Rebula is forging his own path in golf, and it’s proving to be the right one
By MICHAEL VLISMAS
At last November’s AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, Jovan Rebula found himself using a local caddie who couldn’t speak English. ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’ were a challenge, never mind club selection, wind direction and lines of putts. As it turned out, it was the best decision Rebula made.
The 27-year-old Sunshine Tour professional finished fourth that week, and a switch went on in his head. A switch that told him to trust himself more on the golf course. It hasn’t turned off since.
‘I feel like I’ve unlocked a different way of thinking on the golf course and around tournaments. I’m eager to see how well I can do,’ says Rebula.
There is indeed an air of excitement around where Rebula is in his career.
As the much-publicised nephew of Ernie Els and after a stellar amateur career highlighted by him becoming only the second South African to win the Amateur Championship, a lot was also expected of Rebula.
STAKING HIS CLAIM
See how Rebula claimed a spot at the 2018 Open Championship after winning that year’s Amateur Championship.
watch now
‘I feel like I’ve unlocked a different way of thinking on the golf course and around tournaments’
Much like the coffee he enjoys, his professional career has been a slow roast that is now starting to hit full-bodied status.
On the recent stretch of HotelPlanner Tour events on the Sunshine Tour, Rebula was in contention for the MyGolfLife Open at Pecanwood and the Cell C Cape Town Open in association with Honor, where he had respective finishes of tie-13th and tie-fourth.
At the end of the 2024-25 season he was ranked 13th on the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit delivered by The Courier Guy, which was his best Order of Merit finish. He also had a spot within the top 10 on the HotelPlanner Tour’s Road to Mallorca rankings.
When you compare Rebula’s swing to that of his famous uncle, you know the technical area of his game was never where he was going to make the breakthrough.
‘It all comes down to you trusting yourself and playing your own game,’ he says.
‘It all comes down to you trusting yourself and playing your own game’
‘I’ve been trying to get to that, but I couldn’t necessarily feel it until that tournament in Mauritius. That’s when I could actually experience playing my own game and not having any distractions. Everybody was telling me to just play my own game, but you can’t fully grasp it until you actually experience it.’
Belief is certainly a common theme in Rebula’s career. After he won the Amateur Championship, he said: ‘It gave me a tremendous amount of belief. To just know I have the capabilities in my game to pull off a win like that at such a big event helped me a lot with my confidence.’
The rise Rebula is experiencing has indeed been part of a long journey for him since he turned professional in 2021. There are common themes that have been a part of his career, and which are equally an indication that this is a golfer who works on something methodically and with discipline, no matter how long it may take.
QUICK Q&A
One of your most special golf memories?
The 2018 South African Open was very special. I played the third round with Ernie. We actually sat in his hotel room on the Friday evening waiting for the draw to see if we would be playing together. That was probably one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had on the golf course. To be able to play with someone you have idolised your whole life and been so close to was truly special. That is a day I will cherish for the rest of my life.
Do you carry anything special or sentimental in your golf bag?
I carry a brown pouch from The Masters that my grandfather gave me when I was about 11 years old. To this day I have it in my bag, which always reminds me of him.
Looking at your love for coffee, what’s the most memorable coffee you’ve had?
That’s a tough one because there are quite a few. One that comes to mind was during the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. I stayed with a very close friend of mine who lives on the 18th on the Old Course at St Andrews. They have a little nook where I sat and watched the maintenance crew prepare the course for one of the practice rounds. When it comes to having coffee with a view, this one was very hard to beat.
During his impressive college career at Auburn University he said: ‘I learned that if you can shift the focus to yourself more and not so much to others and what they’re doing, that’s what it’s all about. I decided not to put pressure on myself to follow anybody else’s path, but rather to learn as much as I could about the best way for me, and then to be able to use that in my professional career.’
It’s a similar theme from his week in Mauritius, and it’s helped him redefine the next goal for his career.
‘I want to get back to playing golf in America again, whether it’s the Korn Ferry Tour or PGA Tour. That’s where I want to play. You know, we treat the DP World Tour co-sanctioned events on the Sunshine Tour like our Majors. So when you do well there, you start seeing yourself in places where you know you can be. That gives you the confidence to know you can perform in bigger events.
‘I’m excited to build on that.’
TYRONE WINFIELD/shaun roy/sUNSHINE TOUR/ernest blignault/golfrsa
