Thama Jeffrey Nkonyane is about to collect the biggest cheque of his 32-year long career after helping England’s Graeme Storm to victory in the BMW SA Open at a packed and thrilled Glendower on Sunday afternoon.
The 51-year-old caddie from Soweto has said that this will definitely be the biggest pay-day of his life and as much as the money is great, winning is the proudest day of his career.
Graeme Storm pocketed over R2.3 million which means that the caddie that helped him during the tournament will receive a massive pay-out for his efforts.
“It was very special to win the SA Open in front of my home crowd with Graeme, because we’ve known each other more than 20 years.
“I used to caddie for him in his amateur days, when he came out to South Africa as a youngster to compete in the SA Stroke Play and SA Match Play.
“We always reconnect when he comes to South Africa and he calls on me if he doesn’t bring his own bagman. This time his caddy went on honeymoon, so he called and I came.”
Over the last three decades, Nkonyana has carried many bags and some of his favourites included Hugh Baiocchi, the late Wayne Westner and Woody Austin. After so many years playing mother, father, psychologist and caddy brought a lot of experience and he knew his job was to keep Storm’s head in the game.
“Graeme never played with Rory before, so we knew it was going to be a stressful day at the office, but I have to say, the South African golf fans had a lot to do with his win,” Nkonyane said.
“At almost every hole, for every shot, they cheered just as hard for Graeme as they did for Rory and that really gave us a lot of confidence. Graeme didn’t have time to feel the nerves.
“My job was to keep him looking ahead and keep him in the game. We’ve always work well together and he today he had the confidence to tackle Rory.
“I am so proudly South African today. This just shows you that we are as good as caddies anywhere in the world and I hope the youngsters watching saw what Graeme and I did today. You can achieve anything if you work hard and you keep trying.”
What an amazing feeling winning the SA Open today. @Sunshine_Tour @BMW pic.twitter.com/3Hf6V6PhDe
— Graeme Storm (@stormygraeme) January 15, 2017
Thami Nkonyane has been a caddie for 32 years and after many years of trying, he's finally won the #BMWSAOpen with @stormygraeme 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 pic.twitter.com/jozKhkYXqX
— OG Molefe (@OG_Molefe) January 15, 2017
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