Ten years ago – not a huge time in the evolution of a successful professional golfer – Richard Sterne achieved a rare treble by winning the South African junior strokeplay and matchplay titles, as well as the South African Amateur Championship, at the age of 18. Two years later, he added the SA Amateur Strokeplay title to his impressive amateur CV and took the plunge into the paid ranks with a keen sense of expectation both from himself and the South African golfing media.
A season on the European Challenge Tour in 2002 was followed by graduation to the full European Tour in 2003 and he did not have to wait long for the breakthrough that proved he belonged in the highest echelons of the game, securing his first professional win in the 2004 Open de Madrid and following up with a win in the Sunshine Tour’s Nashua Masters just a few months later.
Sterne would wait two years and two weeks for his next win – in the Vodacom Championship at Pretoria Country Club – but it was one that would prove his ability to produce under the most severe pressure, as he won in a sudden death playoff with an extraordinary second shot out of trees to the par-5 18th hole to defeat Louis Oosthuizen, another of South Africa’s up-and-coming young pros.
Just over three months later he would secure his second European Tour win, holding off a fierce challenge from four players down the final stretch to prevail by one shot in the Celtic Manor Wales Open.
At just 1.70 metres, Sterne is one of the shortest players in the professional game, yet he is one of the longest hitters around, generating enormous power from his fluid swing and immaculate timing and marrying this technical ability with a cool head in the ‘big’ moments.
In 2008, Sterne continued to fulfil all the early promise he has shown as an amateur and young pro, creeping into the world’s top 50 – earning a first invitation to the Masters as a result – and enjoying an extraordinary run of form on the Sunshine Tour, particularly in the lucrative co-sanctioned events that form part of the European Tour.
He won three of these in total in a calendar year, culminating in back-to-back victories in the Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek and the SA Open at Pearl Valley, the former by one stroke and the latter in a sudden death playoff over Northern Ireland’s Gareth Maybin after a fabulous final round of 66.
His achievements allowed him to win almost R6 million in prize-money in the 2008 season and a runaway win in the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit. Following an agreement between the Nedbank Golf Challenge and Sunshine Tour in 2006, one of the most exciting consequences of Sterne’s Order of Merit win is the invitation to this year’s NGC, a guaranteed $200 000 in prize-money and the chance to compete with the world’s best in front of adoring local fans.
He will almost certainly be the shortest player in the field, but in physical height only, certainly not off the tee! | 
