Known as 'Legs', Gavan Levenson was a fixture on top of leaderboards in South Africa during the 1980s, and he pulled off some superb victories against the cream of a very good crop.

And those legs were very much on display as he arrived for the 2026 Investec South African Open Championship, on his way to provide some last-minute assistance to one of his charges, Zimbabwean Benjamin Follett-Smith.

It's all part of the change that Levenson – who is as much part of the golf 'establishment' as anyone on the scene – is all in favour of as he watches the sport go through all the growing pains that modernisation brings.

'You know, if I think about it, I'm arriving today in shorts,' he said. 'That would never have happened if we had kept all these rules that we used to have. I'm all for change in everything, because if it makes it or fails or whatever, we've got to keep people interested in watching golf ... we actually are entertainers, and we need to entertain the public.

'I just liken it to cricket when we had just five-day cricket. We needed something to keep people interested, and it wasn't important whether they liked it or not, because the one-day game has actually saved cricket.

'So I think with LIV, all it does is open up places for other guys to play, and it's different. So we have young people who see things differently being attracted to the game.'

This is from a guy who is an honorary life member of the Professional Golfers Association, was chairman of the PGA, and director of the PGA Tour of South Africa for two years in 1996 and 1997. He is a life member of the Sunshine Tour, as it's now called, and he played for four years on the PGA Tour. He also spent 15 years playing on the then-European Tour, and seven more on the European Senior Tour.

'I'm all for change in everything, because if it makes it or fails or whatever, we've got to keep people interested in watching golf ... we actually are entertainers, and we need to entertain the public'

That three-stroke margin seems to pop up often for Levenson, and he started his European career with a big win in the 1979 Belgian Open. He defeated England's Michael King and, more impressively, Nick Faldo and Bobby Cole. 'I birdied the last three holes to win that one,' he remembers. 'It does kind of stand out for me, that win. It was my first year on the European Tour, so it was a good one to take.

'But the South African Open is the one I'm the most proud of. Gary Player was in the field as well. So that also made it quite memorable. And he was so nice to me. It was almost like he was happier for me than he was for himself.'

His win in one of those tournaments got him into the one Major championship he never played. The winner of the Lexington PGA Championship was invited to the Masters, but the politics of the time intervened. 'I was supposed to play in '84, and then they pulled that invite from us during those apartheid times. It's a bit disappointing, but I have been there, and it's an awesome golf tournament.'

He's played all three of the other Majors, with a best finish of a share of 36th in the Open Championship in 1984 at the Old Course at St Andrews when Seve Ballesteros won. 'I played a couple of US Opens, but I didn't make the cut there,' he says. 'And I played one PGA, in 1984 at Shoal Creek when Lee Trevino won from Gary Player and Lanny Wadkins.'

While he remembers all of this, he's back at a tournament where he signed off after playing it for a final time in 2013 at Glendower Golf Club (pictured there with with Charl Schwartzel). That made it 40 South African Open Championship appearances – the most by any golfer, and 38 of them were consecutively.

Now it's about the memories and about helping others create those memories.

LUKE WALKER | GALLO IMAGES | SUNSHINE TOUR