Emerging PGA Tour Stars: Spotlight on Aldrich Potgieter

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00:00I kind of want to get into who you think the most talented player this entire bunch is

00:10because, you know, when I look at any, any Corn Fairy classic comes through, it's always

00:16about, you know, who is the next potential star, a guy that's like a Scotty Scheffler,

00:23a player that's a can't miss prospect.

00:26Well, look, it's a bit of a, you know, I'm leaning on the fact that Matt McCarty just

00:33won on the PGA Tour. Statistically, the best golfer and who I think is going to be the

00:40star out of this class is two different people. You know, like McCarty is unbelievable, fills

00:46up the stat sheet, he gets it done in so many areas, but he doesn't quite look like that

00:52superstar athlete when he hits a golf shot. Like he looks like a lot of other golfers,

00:56he just does it very well. But then one of my favorite guys, and I've been banging on

01:01about this guy since the start of the season, since pretty much the end of last year when

01:06he didn't even have a Corn Fairy Tour card, is Oldrick Podgieter. He's a South African

01:11kid and I mean, he won the AM Championship at 17. So over in Europe, he was the second

01:20youngest to ever do that. He didn't go to college. He decided, hey, I'm going to get

01:25my experience by turning pro and just seeing how I do. So he gets into the US Open, LACC

01:34makes a cut, that gets him an exemption into second stage. He then wins that by four and

01:40they brought in a new rule where if you win second stage, you get guaranteed eight starts

01:44on the Corn Fairy Tour the following year, no matter what happens at final stage, which

01:48I think is a great rule. You know, you win second stage, you should get something. So

01:53yeah, it's a new one. If you're a medalist at second stage, you get the first eight starts

01:59on the Corn Fairy Tour, no matter what happens at final stage the following year. So he turned

02:06eight.

02:07That's a lot, man. I don't know if I agree with that. Eight's a lot. I would have said

02:12four, maybe.

02:13It's a lot. Maybe, look, I'm pretty sure it's eight, but it might be four, but I'm pretty

02:17sure it's eight. Yeah. So he won by four there and then he goes and he wins the second

02:24event on the Corn Fairy Tour in the Bahamas. And I remember texting Shane and being like,

02:28we're not going to get this guy in our broadcast window because he's going to win three times

02:31before we even see him. So look, he struggled with it.

02:37Yeah, tell me about his game. I want to hear about his game because like the cuts, you

02:40know, it's 13 out of 24, but there's obvious super, super, superstar in this kid.

02:46Yeah, look, okay. He averages, I think he's, he's swing speeds, 127 ball speeds, right

02:51around 190. And he says that's his crew. He says that's his cruising ball speed. He lived

03:03in Australia for a long time, so he had his speed early. So then he tried to hone his

03:06game. He apparently hits his, he's got 180 ball speed on a, on a driving line as well.

03:11So he learned to do that when he won the AM championship, hits a great stinger, Australian

03:17under 15 wrestling champion. He's South African, obviously, but he spent a bit of time, learned

03:22how to flight shots. But yeah, he just great touch. He had to get up and down on the last

03:28hole of the tour championships effectively to get his PGA tour card. So yeah, I saw it

03:33up and down too. Wasn't easy. No. And he, look, he missed the green with a sandwich

03:37in his hand for his second, but he look, he was feeling it and it's a security thing.

03:42Like you said, I think now he has security. He could do special things. He's still a little

03:46bit inexperienced in some certain areas in decision-making needs to find more fairways.

03:51He's really pretty much dead last inaccuracy on the corn free tour, but that's usually

03:55how it works when you hit it three 40 average. So I'm excited and look, he nearly missed

04:04his card from winning the second event. You remember a couple of years ago, Akshay Bhatia

04:08won the first event and then, and actually didn't get his PGA tour card. So it's a tough

04:12decision to know all year that you're inside the 30 and then you get around the bubble,

04:17but man, this kid's going to be exciting and you'll see it. As soon as you watch him play,

04:22you'll just be like, wow. Okay. As soon as this guy refined some things, he's going to

04:26do some, some really cool stuff.

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