Christiaan Bezuidenhout

I’ve overcome some adversity to get here

CHRISTIAAN BEZUIDENHOUT

(PRONOUNCED BA-ZADE-NOTE)

EUROPEAN TOUR

AGE 26

LIVES DELMAS / SOUTH AFRICA

I WAS 2 YEARS OLD WHEN IT HAPPENED. My memory doesn’t go back that far, but I’m told I was in the grocery store with my parents, and there was a soda bottle on the ground. I picked it up and drank from it. It wasn’t soda, it was rat poison. When my parents turned around, I was already unconscious on the ground. They rushed me to the hospital, and I spent weeks in the ICU. The doctors said I almost died. That rat poison affected my whole nervous system. Ever since I’ve had a stutter.

The stutter made things at school hard. I didn’t like to speak. I didn’t want to get made fun of. It was also a challenge with golf. I started swinging a club when I was 4 and playing tournaments when I was 8. At tournaments, you have to talk to people. And if you won, you had to speak in front of everyone. In those situations, I’d tense up, hit a blank, and not be able to get words out. The anxiety it created was awful. My doctor put me on beta-blockers to help keep me calm in situations like that, and it helped. But it derailed my golf career.