00:00Uh, talk to me about just what that journey was like leaving home, uh, at an early age and going
00:05to somewhere so far away in Australia. Uh, how, how was that move for you and your family?
00:11I mean, it was tough. I was a pretty young. My sister was also very young. I think I was
00:17eight when we moved and, uh, yeah, we spent nine years in Perth. So, uh, we had a really good
00:23community there. I was in a really good school that had a golf program. And, um, so they made
00:27my life a lot easier with, with the golf side, but yeah, it was a pretty big move. The whole
00:32family moved back and we didn't really have the intention to come back to South Africa.
00:36So, uh, yeah, so we packed up and, um, sent everything to Australia and we've been back
00:42now for about four years, moved, um, just the end of COVID moved back to South Africa. So,
00:47uh, yeah, it was pretty, pretty hectic in Australia when COVID hit and, um, I didn't get to play
00:52a lot of golf. So we kind of thought, okay, what's the next step for me? Turn pro, maybe
00:57go to the sunshine tour or, or we head to, um, head to college in the States. Yeah.
01:05So, uh, Perth, Australia is a bit of a hotbed in golf. It's, uh, some great golf courses in
01:12that side of Western Australia. Uh, but of course, moving at an early age, the move wasn't
01:17necessarily, uh, for golf. It was a family decision to move over to Western Australia, but
01:23your development in the game of golf, do you think it would have been similar if you lived
01:28in South Africa, or do you think just how much golf was over in that Western, uh, side
01:33of Australia really made you start to like, like the game?
01:37I think, um, moving to Australia was, it helped me a lot. The school, the government, they quite,
01:43they quite, they, how can I say it was, um, they gave me a lot of time off, uh, to go play
01:49golf. Um, in South Africa, it's very difficult because a lot of the sports you play in school
01:54time, uh, where in Australia it's in a club, you kind of have to do everything outside of
01:58school. Um, it was pretty difficult. I know a lot of friends that can't really travel a
02:03lot here because they got schoolwork and tests where in Australia, they kind of, they were
02:09very relaxed with it. If I had a test on and I was away, they didn't really stress about
02:13it and I could go, um, go do my thing. So it was, uh, it made it, it made my life easy
02:18and my parents' lives easy. So, um, the golf program we had in Western Australia was really
02:23strong. It was a bit, there's been a couple of guys on the European tour now kind of came
02:27through with me just a little bit older, but, um, yeah, we had a really good system going
02:32over there.
02:32Yeah. And even players that come to my mind, Aldrick, uh, Min Woo Lee, Min Ji Lee, were these, uh,
02:38two players that you found yourself competing against, uh, while you're over there in Perth
02:42or did y'all miss each other age gap wise? Uh, what, who were some of those older European
02:47players too, that you had mentioned?
02:49Yeah, I, I missed Min. Um, they, they stayed a little more on the South side of the city
02:56and I was on the North. So, uh, I had some friends who were friends with him and I saw
03:00him around a little bit, but he was already, he already turned pro and he was doing his
03:04own thing. Um, yeah, I was, I was on the, I was still playing junior golf at that time.
03:09So, uh, but, uh, I've got, how much older is he than you? Is it a couple of years,
03:14men? Yeah. You're 21. He's probably 24 or five. I would have thought you ought to cross
03:20past more, I guess.
03:22Yeah. I think he was, he was traveling more over Australia when I was still playing junior
03:27golf in Western Australia. So yeah, I didn't travel a lot, um, in Australia to go play tournaments.
03:33It was, it was quite tough. I think, um, I kind of played everything, um, that was local
03:38and kind of, kind of hit that wall where I was like, okay, what's next? And that's kind
03:43of when we moved back to South Africa as well. So, yeah.
03:46Would you say that you identify a little bit more as South African or Australian and what
03:51dialect of accent do you think you have more of in, uh, in the way you speak? Because I,
03:56I wasn't really so familiar with your Australian side. I just assumed you grew up in South Africa
04:01this whole time. Uh, how would you describe your identity?
04:05I would say I'm more South African, South African kid. I think, uh, the way I was brought up,
04:11um, I kind of got brought up on a farm kind of in a small town. And then we moved to Perth,
04:17Australia. All my friends were South Africans there in the high school I was in, there was
04:21a thousand kids and there was over 300 South Africans in the school. So, um, a lot of my friends
04:26were South African. So I kind of didn't lose the language or, um, that culture. And, uh,
04:32when we moved back, it was like, okay, nothing's changed. So I would say I'm definitely more on
04:37the South African side and my accent changes so much. I get made fun of so much by my friends
04:42because when I speak to an American, the American words start coming out, the accent. But, um,
04:48when I'm over here, I kind of lose that a little bit. So, uh, I wouldn't say I have an
04:51Aussie accent that it's, um, maybe when I speak to my Australian friends.
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