The Gary Player Class has its first winner in Toto Thimba, who couldn’t’ help but be impressed with his own play en route to the KCB Karen Masters title.
A run of three birdies on the trot from the 15th through to the 17th sealed the win for Thimba and the Gary Player Class, a programme instituted in 2016.
‘To be honest, I’m really impressed with the way I played this week,’ he said.
‘I’ve been working on my state of mind, you know. Everyone said “you’re playing well and why can’t you win?”. So, I had to sit down and check myself and see why can’t I win. So, I started reading books of authors like Les Brown, Eric Thomas and that was a turning point in my life because that made me strong mentally and I had a great attitude this week.’
Known on Tour to be among the humblest of players, Thimba was very confident, if not bullish, in Nairobi this week, opting for an aggressive approach to the tournament in his search for that first win.
‘I knew I was going to win,’ he said on Sunday. ‘This win is for my mentor, Zekiel Moore, who lost a wife and a son, and I said I was going to win it for him.’ In a way that only Thimba can be, he refuses to claim the victory as his own, instead dedicating it to fellow Gary Player Class members.
‘This one is for the Gary Player Class,’ he said. ‘They are my brothers and we work hard together. I am still going to win for them. I want to win them all but this one is for all the African golfers and I hope it can open some doors for all of us.’
The Gary Player Class, the Sunshine Tour’s development programme which benefits from the longstanding support of the South African Golf Development Board (SAGDB), founded in 1999 by Johann Rupert as the official body for golf development in South Africa, as well as the Ernie Els and Fancourt Foundation (EEFF) in a collective effort to use golf to improve the lives of disadvantaged South Africans.
Thimba becomes the third first-time winner this season following the victories of Garrick Higgo at Sun City, Jake Redman at the Lombard Insurance Classic and Martin Rohwer who claimed the Investec Royal Swazi Open.
