YURAV PREMLALL

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This former GolfRSA prodigy ruled the amateurs, won on the Sunshine Tour and has now broken through on the DP World Tour

BY MICHAEL VLISMAS 

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Last December, Gary Player sent a personal invitation to Yurav Premlall to compete in his first Nedbank Golf Challenge. Clearly, Player knew something. Just five months later, Premlall and Tiger Woods were being mentioned in the same conversation.


A golfer who only a few years ago was still wearing braces had made us all remember the man in the red shirt fist-pumping his way to massive victories. The golf world didn't hold back in their praise of what was described as a 'Tiger-esque' performance in Spain.


The fact that Premlall claimed his maiden DP World Tour triumph in the Estrella Damm Catalunya Championship by a ridiculous 14 shots – just one shot short of Woods' all-time record for the biggest winning margin on the Tour – was indeed his own version of Woods' famous 'Hello World' statement.


It's taken 26 years on the DP World Tour for anybody to come this close to the immortality of Woods' golf. But Premlall carved his own niche in DP World Tour history as the owner of what is the largest winning margin for a maiden title on the Tour. The man he beat to this achievement – none other than Tiger Woods.


And incidentally, it is only South African golfers who have been able to challenge Woods' milestone. Premlall now leads a list of four South Africans who occupy the top four places after Woods in terms of biggest winning margins on the DP World Tour. The 22-year-old professional (he turns 23 on 17th June) is followed by Ernie Els and Retief Goosen (both 13 shots), and Charl Schwartzel (12 shots) before Woods bookends them with his 11-shot victory in the 1997 Masters.

'Once I saw Casey doing it, and with us all growing up together and playing for the same golf union, it just spurred me on as well.'

Premlall was barely six years old when Louis Oosthuizen won The Open on the Old Course. It crystalised in his own mind the desire to win The Open one day, and it fuelled his future successes at a very young age in the game.


He was a club champion at Glendower Golf Club at the age of 14. At age 15 he was the youngest player to ever qualify for the South African Open and make the cut. Just five years ago, he finished as the leading amateur in the South African Open. That same year he won the Nedbank Junior Challenge at the Gary Player Country Club. He was a GolfRSA top-ranked amateur when he turned professional. In 2024, he made his Sunshine Tour breakthrough with a victory in Sishen. That same year, Premlall gave a glimpse of his potential when he was just four shots off the lead going into the weekend of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland.


Premlall has been methodical and focused about his career progression. He remained on the Sunshine Tour and didn't spread himself too thinly as he chased the opportunity the Tour provides to earn promotion to the DP World Tour. That came his way last season, and before his 30th start on the DP World Tour he made a massive breakthrough.

His was the fifth title for South Africa on the DP World Tour on the 2026 Race to Dubai. Significantly though, those five titles come from only three players – Jayden Schaper, Casey Jarvis and Premlall. As a new generation of talent goes, this is an important moment. Schaper and Jarvis are already the country's top two golfers on the world rankings.


'We always said that once someone in our age group gets it done, a lot more will follow. With Jayden (Schaper) starting things off, it was great to see Casey (Jarvis) come on board and he won back-to-back. Once I saw Casey doing it, and with us all growing up together and playing for the same golf union, it just spurred me on as well,' Premlall told the DP World Tour.


Throw in Aldrich Potgieter and the growing momentum of a new generation of South African golf stars becomes clearly evident. All are now winners on the major tours of either the DP World Tour or PGA Tour, and all are under the age of 25. It's been a while since South African golf has had such a young group of players at the spearhead of the country's golfers on the world rankings.

A day after his break-through win on the DP World Tour, Premlall posted to Instagram: 'Still feels surreal and don't know if that feeling of elation will ever cease!! I'm so grateful to everyone for all the support and love!! My family and team for being so invested in this journey and never giving up on me even when I was at rock bottom. God's plan never ceases to amaze me because this script was something,'


Premlall was two years old when his father introduced him to golf. When the family moved from Durban to Gauteng, a young Premlall found the rhythm of swinging a club and hitting balls on the range soothing as he tried to adjust to a new life away from his friends and extended family.


'I was probably about three or four years old when I started off just beating balls on a range with my dad when he went to one of the driving ranges where we lived. Once we moved to Johannesburg, I became a member of a team at a club. Being like eight years old, I wasn't really there for golf. I was just kind of making a mess of things, having a good time as a little junior. And then once I started getting competitive, playing as a kid, then slowly progressed from there. He obviously saw something in me,' says Premlall.


Now the rest of world golf has seen it as well.

CARL FOURIE | TYRONE WINFIELD | TROY WINFIELD | SUNSHINE TOUR | DP WORLD TOUR