A few weeks ago a young disadvantaged golfer from the ganglands of the Cape was asked who his golf hero was. “Robin Williams,” he said. When the Sunshine Tour professional heard this, he was speechless.

“Wow. That’s inspired me so much,” said Williams, who heads into this week’s NMB Championship on the Sunshine Tour and European Challenge Tour with the chance to continue inspiring a new generation of South African golfers.

Williams is currently ranked 11th on the Challenge Tour’s Road to Mallorca Rankings, thanks largely to his third-place finish in last week’s Dimension Data Pro-Am. That puts him well within the top 20, and if he remains there by the end of this Challenge Tour season he will earn promotion to the DP World Tour.

It’s the goal of the majority of Sunshine Tour professionals competing at Humewood Golf Club this week, and certainly the next step for Williams who is already a winner on the Sunshine Tour.

He showed his ability to compete against the world’s best when he led the first round of December’s Sunshine Tour and DP World Tour co-sanctioned Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek.

“I’ve got the game to win out here and compete. It’s also about learning to handle my emotions and not just my game in the bigger events,” he said.

There’s a similar sense of expectation this week for Dylan Naidoo and Louis Albertse as they seek to build on their solid campaigns during this Sunshine Tour and Challenge Tour co-sanctioned swing, with the NMB Championship the final tournament of this stretch.

Naidoo has finished fourth and 15th in two of the last three tournaments and is currently eighth on the road to Mallorca Rankings.

Albertse has been incredibly consistent with finishes of 16th, third and 15th in the three previous tournaments that places him in fifth position on the Road to Mallorca Rankings. – Michael Vlismas.