Rama riding the positives of the season

Randburg’s professional golfer, Nikhil Rama, says while he has had his struggles in the current Sunshine Tour season, he has also been pleased with his steady development and progress, at the same time.

The 21-year-old member of Bryanston Country Club is a member of the Sunshine Tour’s Papwa Sewgolum Transformation Class, an initiative aimed at combining more playing opportunities with support from major corporates to promote greater inclusion in the game for historically disadvantaged players.

Rama has been one of the stand-out members of the Papwa Sewgolum class in his first three seasons on Tour, and while he has seen his fair share of inconsistency, this has been a decent season so far. In his last 11 starts, Rama has missed the cut seven times, while but his best finish on Tour came from last week’s Gary and Vivienne Player Challenge where he placed 13^th. The result in Selborne came on the back of two missed cuts but the young Randpark Ridge resident isn’t pressing the panic button yet.

“I’ve been really struggling for the last couple of months,” Rama admitted. “I have been putting the work in but nothing has been showing. I’ve really had a struggling start to the season. I’ve been playing well but just cannot put a score together and that’s how it’s been this season. But I’ve been working hard with my coach and I’m positive and confident of what’s about to come.”

One could see the glimpses of what’s to come from Rama on the South Coast last week with his rounds of 69-70-70 propelling him to a share of 13^th.

“I was delighted with my whole game to be honest,” he added, “I drove the ball really well, hit solid iron shots. I didn’t make too many mistakes, to be honest, I just struggled a bit on the greens, but all round solid.”

Like many in the Papwa Sewgolum Class, Rama has credited the existence of the Altron Big Easy Tour for the ability to stay competitive even when there are small breaks in the season. His two starts on that tour – another Sunshine Tour initiative to create more pathways to greatness – have yielded results of 12^th and 5^th.

“I played at Houghton and Randpark,” Rama said. “It’s really great to play those events to keep the competitive side of you going through the little season breaks we have. The competition is really tough on the Big Easy and there are a lot of strong players coming through.

“As for the Papwa Class, it’s been an honour to be part of such a lovely group of people and all the good advice the older and more experienced players have given.”

Through the Papwa Sewgolum Transformation Class, Rama plus 60 other historically disadvantaged golfers are being given an opportunity to take their professional careers to the next level as the first intake of this forward-thinking programme.

The Big Easy Tour was founded in 2011 with support from Ernie Els and counts current international star Christiaan Bezuidenhout amongst its former Order of Merit winners. It currently boasts Altron Systems Integration as its title sponsor.