Oliver Bekker Facts: 10 Things To Know About The South African Golfer

Oliver Bekker at the Alfred Dunhill Championship — Oliver Bekker turned professional in 2008

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Oliver Bekker’s professional career has seen its fair share of success, as well as variety, with the South African playing on several circuits.

Here are 10 things to know about the Pretoria-born star.

Oliver Bekker Facts

1. Oliver Bekker was born on December 11th^, 1984 in Pretoria, South Africa.

2. After turning professional in 2008, he joined the Sunshine Tour. He now has eight victories on the circuit, including three titles in 2017.

3. His Major debut came the same year, in the US Open at Erin Hills, where he missed the cut.

4. After a spell on the Challenge Tour (now the HotelPlanner Tour), Bekker earned his place on the DP World Tour for 2022 after finishing seventh in the Road to Mallorca rankings.

5. In May 2022, Bekker reached a career-high world ranking of 84th.

6. Less than a month later, he was teeing it up in the inaugural LIV Golf event at Centurion near London, where he represented Dustin Johnson's 4Aces GC. He finished T6, but that was his only appearance, and he returned to the DP World Tour.

4Aces GC with Greg Norman — Oliver Bekker (second from left) played in the first LIV Golf event for 4Aces GC

7. His one LIV Golf outing earned him prize money of $737,500

8. Bekker was on the verge of a return to LIV Golf at its Promotions event in 2026. With one round to play, and needing to place in the top three for a card, he was T2. However, he eventually finished T8 to miss out by three.

9. One of his superstitions is not playing with No.3 golf balls.

10. His interests away from golf include reading and computer games.

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Oliver Bekker Bio
Born	Pretoria, South Africa - December 11th, 1984
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Turned Professional	2008
Former Tours	Web.com Tour Challenge Tour LIV Golf DP World Tour
Current Tours	PGA Tour of Australasia Sunshine Tour
Professional Wins	9
Highest OWGR	84th

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Oliver Bekker Professional Wins
Tour	Event	Winning Score
Sunshine Tour	2011 Northern Cape Classic	-15 (five strokes)
Sunshine Tour	2012 Dimension Data Pro-Am	-13 (two strokes)
Sunshine Tour	2013 Telkom PGA Pro-Am	-20 (two strokes)
Sunshine Tour	2016 Sun City Challenge	-6 (one stroke)
Sunshine Tour	2017 Zambia Sugar Open	-19 (two stokes)
Sunshine Tour	2017 Lombard Insurance Classic	-19 (playoff)
Sunshine Tour	2017 Sun Wild Sun Coast Challenge	-11 (three strokes)
Sunshine Tour/Challenge Tour	2023 Dimension Data Pro-Am	-22 (four strokes)
PGA Tour of Australasia	2025 Nexus Advisernet Bowra & O'Dea WA Open	-7 (one stroke)

Mike has over 25 years of experience in journalism, including writing on a range of sports throughout that time, such as golf, football and cricket. Now a freelance staff writer for Golf Monthly, he is dedicated to covering the game's most newsworthy stories.

He has written hundreds of articles on the game, from features offering insights into how members of the public can play some of the world's most revered courses, to breaking news stories affecting everything from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to developmental Tours and the amateur game.

Mike grew up in East Yorkshire and began his career in journalism in 1997. He then moved to London in 2003 as his career flourished, and nowadays resides in New Brunswick, Canada, where he and his wife raise their young family less than a mile from his local course.

Kevin Cook’s acclaimed 2007 biography, Tommy’s Honour, about golf’s founding father and son, remains one of his all-time favourite sports books.

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