Player Profiles: Vincent Tshabalala

Vincent Tshabalala

One of South African’s greatest black golfers who enjoyed success on both the European & European Senior Tours, Tshabalala was born in Johannesburg and worked as a mechanic before his golf career took over. Designated as “Coloured” under the Apartheid racial classification scheme, he was not able to play on the Southern African Tour in his prime, but with assistance from South Africa’s leading white golfer Gary Player, he gained entry to tournaments around the world, and in 1976 he won the European Tour’s French Open. Later that year he was selected in South Africa’s World Cup team, but refused to take part. Soon afterwards his career was curtailed by injury.

Tshabalala made a comeback in the over-50 ranks, finishing in the top twenty on the European Seniors Tour Order of Merit four times in the 1990s, though without winning any tournaments. He also played on the Southern Africa Tour after the racial restrictions were abolished in the early 1990s, but by then he was almost fifty and he didn’t win any official money events.

He won the Betterball competition with Ernie Els in the 2004 Gary Player Invitational and again in 2005, playing with Tim Clark.