Always dapperly dressed, always obviously fully fit, and always competitive, Ulrich van den Berg brought a combination of class and swagger to every event he played on the Sunshine Tour.

Not that he doesn't do the same now, but he's not on those fairways as often as he used to be. At 51, he's moved on to the Sunshine Legends Tour, and he plays on the Betway Big Easy Tour and occasionally (when it's in town) on the Sunshine Tour itself.

Van den Berg now throws himself into work based around Bryanston Country Club, where he has a fitting centre as well as the retail shop. 'That keeps me busy daily, and I still play competitively as well. I've been playing more of a limited schedule over the last eight years. I'm playing a bit more now because the course is under construction at the moment.'

His amateur feats are the stuff of legend around East London Golf Club, in the town where he was born, schooled and learnt to play. He first picked up a club at the age of eight and was largely self-taught in his early years.

With seven Sunshine Tour titles to his name, one Big Easy title, and three Legends Tour wins, his professional career has been a good one too.

But that career is studded with two interventions which leave him – and his fans – wondering what might have been.

The first was the Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek in December 2005. Van den Berg's third-round 65 took him into the final day with a two-stroke lead over Ernie Els. The lead went up to four shots when he birdied four of the first six holes in the final round, but he bogeyed the par four 9th hole and then suffered an awful collapse with a triple-bogey on the par-four 11th and a double-bogey on the short 16th, staggering home in 44 strokes.

'That's the one that really hurt. That's the one that could have changed my life,' he said. Van den Berg's four-over-par round of 76 saw him slide into a share of fourth, with youngsters Louis Oosthuizen and defending champion Charl Schwartzel in a share of second.

Two shots further back was Titch Moore, a man against whom Van den Berg suffered another defeat that hurt him too. He lost to Moore in a five-hole play-off in the SA PGA Championship at Country Club Johannesburg in 2014. 'The one at the PGA wouldn't have changed my life because it wouldn't have got me into anything like the European Tour,' he says.

However, the event that changed Van den Berg's golfing trajectory more than anything else was the death of his father in 2008.

He was playing on the European Tour that year, having won his card at qualifying school at the end of 2007. 'My dad got gravely ill and I came home and sat with him. And that was the year where I was playing my best golf.

'I was probably at the peak of my powers. And, post that, I was a broken man for better part of two, probably four years. Watching somebody suffer like he did to pass away was new to me. And then obviously, being your dad, you know, the hurt was even more.

'It was a life experience that probably we all have to go through at some point. But the time that it came, it definitely retarded my growth in the game. And, you know, I was a shadow of myself for two years and then started picking it up again.

'And then, when I started playing well again, I was maybe a little bit older, and without even knowing, my powers were also diminishing. But I was 33 years old. I was fit. I was strong. I was mature enough. I had enough experience. And that was the year that I probably would have broken through. But you never know.'

There is still the chance that he could make that breakthrough on the senior stages of the world, but that possibility seems a little less likely than before: 'I did go to European Senior Tour School in Turkey, and I missed out,' he recalls. 'I finished ninth, and I think it was top four guys got their card. So, I missed by three shots.

'Part of me said I would love to have got my card. And then also, when I was thinking about it, I was like, gee, do I want to get on an airplane now and start doing this all over again?'

However, he keeps himself in shape for what may arise. 'I'm as diligent, but I'm not as intense as I used to be. But I mean, for my age, I think I'm okay. But now a lot more stretching. And I do try to stretch every night. And yeah, I still use some metal to try and keep some semblance of strength.

'There's a part of me that says, you know, thank God I don't do it anymore, week-in, week-out. It's like a double-edged sword. Because you love the game, but then you start hating the game. And now when I do it less frequently and with more choice, I seem to love the grind of having to build a round and having to grind out a score. Back in the day, it was my living and it was my primary source of income. And everything revolved around that. So the intensity of that could become draining and overwhelming.

'And I didn't have a switch-off button. The critical part is that you're able to find a way to switch off when you have to.'

And despite everything, Ulrich van den Berg is one of South African golf's treasures, because he plays the way he did – and still does.

TYRONE WINFIELD | DEON VAN DER MERWE | SUNSHINE TOUR