Women in Sport: New beginnings for Nicole Garcia

Leading South African women’s golfer Nicole Garcia has spent the last four years of her career basically injured, so the 28-year-old is really looking forward to her return to the professional tour in January.

Garcia has been out of action since last December after a frustrating 2018 in which she played some great golf but couldn’t finish off tournaments because the pain in her hips and lower back – core areas of the golf swing – would just get worse and worse.

She nevertheless finished fourth on the Sunshine Ladies Tour order of merit, with five top-10 finishes, and still managed to end in the top-50 of the Ladies European Tour (LET) standings.

“Last season was the worst in terms of pain. In four out of seven tournaments in South Africa I was leading or within one or two shots, but then the pain was just too much over the weekend. It turned out it’s to do with my hips and back, my bones did not develop properly in childhood so my hip joint doesn’t fit properly. Golf just puts all the load in all the wrong places, so I had to get it fixed.

“I had surgery on December 6 and then I tried to hit balls after six months but it was the same if not worse pain. So until last week I wasn’t able to do anything, it’s been a long process and I’ll probably just have to deal with it for the rest of my career – have cortisone injections into my spine. But now it feels quite good, there’s no pain and I’ll be back in January 2020,” Garcia explained to Saturday Citizen.

Due to her medical exemption, she will keep the Ladies European Tour playing privileges she enjoyed up to her break, and playing in America is still a dream, but Garcia, who has kept herself busy in the meantime making furniture with sister Nadine, knows there is still a tough road ahead.

“You have lots of different thoughts while you’re out, like ‘Will I be able to get back and compete?’ Initially it will only be here and in Europe, but I did play some unbelievable golf in the LPGA Tour School first stage last year, finishing second, but then in second stage I was just in so much pain that I couldn’t swing. So I will still go for it.

“But if this operation happens when you’re 20, it’s a lot different. I’ll have to change my swing and there are some long months ahead, it’s going to be really tough mentally and in the last couple of years I’ve probably fallen behind a bit in terms of how far the girls are hitting the ball. For almost my whole professional career I haven’t been able to get into the gym after rounds, whereas 90% of the golfers go for extra strength and fitness coaching,” Garcia said.

Not that the resolute but bubbly Garcia is even considering tossing the tour in. Perhaps it is because she came to golf quite late in life that she has such a passion for the sport.

Although she did not even like golf the first time she tried it.

“I played competitive squash at school and my Mom would wait for me every day at Benoni Lake Golf Club while I played on their courts. One day she booked a lesson for herself at the driving range and I hit a few balls, but I hated it! I thought it was the worst sport, just dumb, but then one day I went back and I was hooked. I’ve always played a lot of sports and I just managed to hit it out the middle.

“Keri van Velzen, who played competitive golf, was the coach and she said I could really hit the ball. I was 16 and I had only just started playing golf seriously when Benoni Lake hosted an LET event and I went to go and watch. It was my first proper exposure to women’s golf and then I started playing in amateur tournaments. I remember my first tournament was Ashleigh Simon’s last before she went pro, I shot a great 99 and I was happy as anything!

“After playing representative amateur golf, I went to tour school just to see what it was like, to see how far behind I was. But I qualified for my card and had to phone Lee-Anne Pace for advice because I didn’t know what to do when on tour, it was such a shock!”

Garcia, who also excelled academically at the University of Pretoria, was certainly a fast learner and by 2014 she had earned a partial card on the Ladies European Tour.

That year she also qualified for the U.S. Open, one of the highlights of her career.

“That was the year they played the men’s and women’s U.S. Open on consecutive weeks at Pinehurst Number Two. So Grant [Veenstra, the former Sunshine Tour pro and now leading coach to whom she has just become engaged] and I went a week early to watch the men’s tournament. We were able to walk with Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Ernie Els on a practice round and Ernie gave me a chipping lesson.

“Finishing second in Morocco, losing by just one stroke, in my first year on the LET was also a great memory and my 2017 DiData win in South Africa was such a nice tournament to win because of the atmosphere at Fancourt. Grant had only been coaching me for a few weeks after Doug Wood had been my coach for 10 years and Keri before that for my first one or two years.”

Veenstra and Garcia will be taking their relationship to a new level, and on the golf course Garcia will be excited to show what she can do pain-free and fully fit.

For more sport your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.