I knew it would be a long day when the freshly capped Springbok pulled up in the Wingate Park Country Club car park in his brand new white VW Polo, his name emblazoned on the door. A meaty right forearm stuck out the driver’s window, with golf clubs leaning out of the passenger side.

Out climbed Philip Schutte, a giant of a man – 6ft 7in and 120kg. He walked round and took out his clubs, with one hand. The big unit was here for his first-ever round of golf, which would be the first of many corporate days for him, where celebrity meets CEO and the like.

He had four borrowed clubs, no bag needed, and he carried them in one hand like a set of braai tongs. A driver, 7-iron, pitching-wedge and putter. In his other hand, he had his golf balls for the day – probably a dozen then! – and he put them into his pockets as he greeted his playing partners.

They say a bad day on the golf course beats a good day at work. Although for Schutte, he might have enjoyed his day job operating in the dark underworld of the rugby scrum at Loftus more than a stroll around this country club. Having said that, though, of the hundred-and-plenty attempts he had at the ball during that round, the gentle giant produced one that gave him bragging rights for all time. And might have even enticed him back for another corporate day.

He made a par on one of the par threes, putting from well off the green. The playing partners were still shouting ’t-a-x-i-i-i’ when the ball hit the flagstick and dropped in the hole. What is it that Gary Player always says, ‘A bad putt beats a good chip’?

Some might say this was a bad putt because the ball was showing no signs of slowing down as it got within sight of the hole. But, it turned into a brilliant one because it ended up in the hole. Golf, eh?

I was reminded of this after watching DP World Tour pro Connor Syme’s putt for birdie from 60 feet (in links golf, this is common) at the Nexo Championship in Aberdeen, Scotland. The Scot’s ball scooted past the hole, off the other side of the green and back down the fairway. He started 18 yards from the flag and the ball settled 47 yards beyond it. ‘He’ll be back on the tee in a minute,’ chortled the commentator.

Putting, as we all know, is where we see strange things. Some of us want to offer a minute’s silence, like when Ernie Els six-putted the 1st green at the 2016 Masters. Our favourite golfing son ordinarily wields the putter like a wizard does a wand, but here it had gone all wrong.

It was Ernie again who produced yet another YouTube moment when he putted from the fringe of the green at the 2013 Wyndham Championship, but his ball nested a few yards away, still in the fringe. ‘I had to go almost 90 degrees and I missed my little target by half a foot and then I was really stuffed,’ he said afterwards.

However, in typical Ernie fashion, he nailed that next putt from the fringe 26 feet away from the hole for par.

It begs the question for the rules aficionados – does it count as two putts even if the ball was never on the green? Or statistically, is it zero putts?

The answer is important because somewhere in the Philip Schutte household, he might still be talking about the time he one-putted for a par in his first round of golf.

Whatever the case, the putting surface is one of the great levellers in life. It’s an area where a raw newbie can earn bragging rights over a partner who might be a seasoned professional. And that could never happen in any other sport.

Gary Lemke