It's a question regularly asked wherever one travels: How can a country that has just 160 000 registered golfers compete so well all over the world? Here's the answer ... 

There is no single reason for the fact there are more South African players playing on international tours than ever before. It comes down to multiple reasons – and they all deserve our thanks.

Our golf facilities are fantastic and mostly they welcome young golfers onto the course at cheap rates. To enhance that, we have the Golf Development Board who assist us in getting even more young golfers exposed to golf. We also have plenty of junior golf tournaments where our young players learn to compete and get around the golf course more efficiently.

We have a rich history of great champion golfers dating back to the great Bobby Locke in the middle 1930s. Players have always had someone to emulate and chase, and the opportunities to measure yourself against world stars.

Locke was the reason Gary Player, the Henning family, Retief Waltman, Denis Hutchinson and many others were encouraged to play on the world stage. Player is our finest ever golfer and players of my era looked at him and thought; 'I can do that'.

Well, we couldn't, but we all tried our best.

Gary single-handedly took golf in South Africa to a new level. He brought more golf tournaments and brought the greatest players in the world to play exhibition matches all over South Africa, which in turn got more people interested in golf.

After Player came Nick Price, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, and apart from being great players they all found time to promote junior golf, open academies and play on the Sunshine Tour.

This year we have had seven wins at DP World Tour events. Casey Jarvis and Jayden Schaper have both won twice, with one win each for Yurav Premlall, Michael Hollick and Richard Sterne. That is more than any other country, with the United States next on five wins.

Only America has won more Majors than South Africa since Bobby Locke started, which is a stat we should be proud of.

The people behind the scenes are the unsung heroes. Golf administrators, benefactors and other passionate golf lovers.

Norbet Earlie helped Locke just after WW II and arranged for, and sponsored, Sam Snead to travel to South Africa for a series of matches against Locke. He convinced Locke to travel to the US where he made a great impact before winning the Open Championship four times.

Then came George and Brenda Blumberg, who quietly helped every really good golfer who came along between 1955 and 1985. Uncle George, as he was affectionately known, didn't just help financially, it was in many other ways too, such as travel and getting entrance into events all over the world.

Now we have Johann Rupert (main image). We don't have enough space to put down all the help that he has given golf and golfers (young and old); the Golf Development Board; GolfRSA and the GolfRSA squads. He also built one of our country's finest golf courses, Leopard Creek. Rupert devotes a massive amount of his time to the game as Chairman of the Sunshine Tour, the Golf Development Board and GolfRSA.

Selwyn Nathan (pictured with Denis Hutchinson) is another man whose contribution to golf is hard to put into words as he does so much anonymously. Selwyn took the Sunshine Tour to the next level and we now have players coming from all over to play on our tour.

Why do they enjoy the Sunshine Tour so much? Well because the events are proper – there is the weather, but they are real golf tournaments, they are professionally run, most are televised and they are played on our best golf courses.

Selwyn was a fine player himself. He played on the Sunshine Tour and the European Tour before going into administration.

The CEO of GolfRSA, Grant Hepburn, is another man who needs to be mentioned. When he took over the job no-one in golf talked to each other. He has managed to unite all our associations: the PGA; Sunshine Tour; Disabled Golf; Golf Development; women's; and men's amateur golf – all with a common goal being the good of the game.

Of course, we also have all the provincial and golf association officials who give up enormous amounts of their time and effort without financial reward.

Finally, a word on the golf coaches in South Africa. We have produced fine coaches for a very long time, with Phil Ritson probably being the first to get international recognition. Then came David Leadbetter, Gary Gilchrist, Andrew Rice, Mel Sole, Peter Baker, Jamie Gough and others. I'd also like to give recognition to the many PGA Professionals at clubs across the country who have nurtured young golfers. Just one example is Vaughn Tucker, who taught Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace from a young age, but there are countless other examples.

We have high calibre club professionals who are experienced and provide excellent golf instruction. All I can say to the golfer who brags that they've gotten down to an 8-handicap without ever having had a lesson from a pro, is that if you had, you'd probably be a 2-handicap.

The two greatest golfers in history, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, had coaches all through their careers and especially when they were at their best. Nicklaus had Jack Grant and Tiger had Butch Harmon. I was even more fortunate. I had my dad, Otway Hayes, who knew my swing so well he could coach me over the telephone.

Finally, South Africans are natural competitors. Even as spectators we are passionate about winning. This is instilled in us from a young age and no matter what sport you can think of, we have always competed well for a small country on the tip of Africa.

Our commitment, passion and dedication to golf was acknowledged with nominations for three awards at the 19th SA Sports Awards. GolfRSA was nominated for Federation of the Year; the Eisenhower Trophy team that won in Singapore (Christiaan Maas, Daniel Bennett and Charl Barnard) was nominated for Sports Team of the Year; and Christiaan Maas was also nominated for Sportsman of the Year. We didn't win any of these awards, but Selwyn Nathan did receive the Steve Tshwete Lifetime Achievement Award for his life-long contribution to sports in South Africa.

Thank you to each and every one of you that loves the game and puts the betterment thereof at the forefront of your life.