SA golfer Ruan de Smidt hopes to shake off poor form: 'I didn't know if I could carry on'

South African golfer Ruan de Smidt admits that he nearly gave up after 10 years on the Sunshine Tour but is fighting to get back into the winner's circle.

Being a Sunshine Tour professional is never easy, and with the boundless talent coming through the system, winning is tougher than many expect.

That's the case for De Smidt, who has been on the Tour for 10 years and only has four Sunshine Tour titles to his name, including winning the Sunshine Tour Rookie of the Year title in 2012.

His last Sunshine Tour win came in 2016, where he won two titles (Sun Carnival City Challenge and Sun Boardwalk Challenge), but since then, it's been a dry spell for the Krugersdorp-golfer.

Then there's a financial aspect. Since Covid-19 struck, the Sunshine Tour slowly came back, but it was a tough period with golf courses closed for 77 days in 2020.

Despite the Sunshine Tour's return in August 2020, De Smidt struggled to get back into the swing of things and missed 11 cuts from 17 events.

"Covid-19 affected my game massively, there weren't many competitions and I wasn't making the money I usually used to," Smidt told Sport24 at the Sunshine Tour Media Challenge at Serengeti Estates.

"It was a difficult period, things just weren't going my way and it was frustrating."

Despite being a veteran on the Sunshine Tour for a decade, De Smidt is not sponsored by any brand and struggles financially to stay afloat on the Tour.

In 2020/21 season, De Smidt only won R69 061 from 11 and 2021/22 season R62 190 after missing 15 cuts in 19 events.

"It's been a tough few years, I lost my dad and with his passing, I didn't know if I could carry on and kind of lost that drive to keep playing," said Smidt.

"It was a tough period for me, I didn't want to play anymore and I