Playing the Long Game

Golf is a game of patience, proving the adage that true rewards take time. 

Twenty-one years after claiming the 2005 Nomads SA Boys U19 Match Play Championship, Michael Hollick’s lifelong dream of cracking the DP World Tour – golf’s premier men’s professional golf tour operated by the European Tour group – came true.

Victories in the FBC Zimbabwe Open and the DNi Tour Championship at the Blair Atholl Golf and Equestrian Estate saw Michael finish seventh on the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit in 2025 to take the final available DP World Tour Card ahead of the 2026 season. 

Michael’s debut DP World Tour season was set up nicely by a third-place finish at the Australian Open, which earned him entry into one of golf’s oldest and most prestigious tournaments, the 154th Open Championship played later in the year at Royal Birkdale in England. Finishing in the top 10 in the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open secured him a wild card entry into the Dubai Desert Classic in January. 

However, the real breakthrough came in July in Germany when Michael’s ability to thrive under pressure earned him his maiden DP World Tour crown in Munich. There he eagled the final hole to snaffle the 2026 BMW International Open title from fellow South African, Hennie du Plessis. This landmark career win earned him a full exemption for the 2027 and 2028 seasons. 

Why is this important? Because professional golf is a cut-throat business. Most regular stroke-play tournaments implement a standard 36-hole cut where only the top 65 players and ties progress to money-earning rounds. In other words, players who finish in 66th place or lower earn no prize money. With about 10,000 highly skilled and talented athletes trying to get to the top, only the strongest survive. For those who don’t make the cut, at a cost of about R50,000 to R80,000 per week in Europe, their tournament just becomes an expensive golf trip. 

Full exemption means entry into the four guaranteed money tournaments, including the Dubai Invitational, Nedbank Golf Challenge, Abu Dhabi Championship and the DP World Tour Championship, as well as all the Rolex Series events that offer larger prize purses and more ranking points than standard DP World Tour events.

Rewind 21 years to the U19 Matchplay Championship win that was the catalyst for Michael’s decision to make a career out of golf, and his patience and tenacity to stick with it become truly remarkable. After joining the Sunshine Tour and turning pro in 2012, Michael had a mediocre run on the Qualifying School (Q-School), a multi-stage tournament process where professional and top amateur golfers compete to earn a Tour Card on the professional golf tour. He won his first Sunshine Tour event, the Sun Sibaya Challenge in 2015.

Lockdown saw him hitting golf balls into a duvet in the garden and turning to online video coaching to earn a living. After a lacklustre post-COVID return to full-time golf, Michael turned towards coaching at Mount Edgecombe, playing in only about a third of the tournaments. He found form again towards the end of 2023, which led to the fateful FBC Zimbabwe Open victory at the start of the 2024 Sunshine Tour season that would set in motion the hot streak that earned him his rookie DP World Tour Card.

Michael Hollick Instagram

Photos: Tyrone Winfield/Sunshine Tour