Having competed in many of the premium golfing tournaments in Southern Africa, Benjamin Follet-Smith is regarded by many as one of the top professional golfers in the region. He spoke to SMF News’ Grace Henderson about the shots that took him from his childhood garden in Zimbabwe to competing on international fairways.
Zimbabwean professional golfer Benjamin Follet-Smith competed in his first golf tournament at the age of five. He visited Stellenbosch recently to compete in the South African Open Championship. PHOTO: Grace Henderson
Sporting a pair of crisp Louis Vuitton sneakers and a Callaway cap, the Zimbabwean golfer sips on a rock shandy. He straightens the creases of his Under Armour polo-shirt, and settles his hands comfortably across the arms of the wicker chair.
On the R44, between Stellenbosch and Somerset West, sits the guest farm of Val de Vine. Within this luxury estate perches a restaurant, nestled among beds of lavender and covered by the shade of oak trees. At the centre of its courtyard, a streaming fountain silences the traffic from the road beyond, and it is here that Benjamin Follet-Smith awaits his next tournament, the South African Open Championship.
Teeing off
As he reflects on his childhood, it becomes clear that golf had never been just a hobby.
“I’ve wanted to be a pro golfer my whole life. Never thought of anything else,” he says definitively.
Raised in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, the 31-year-old fostered his love for the sport in a landscape where golf remained a quiet presence. He attended St John’s College in Harare for high school, but felt frustrated by his alma mater’s indifference.
“St John’s didn’t pay any attention to golf. Not like they did to rugby or hockey,” he says. “That was tough. Golf wasn’t a thought-of sport.”
Benjamin Follet-Smith practicing at the Stellenbosch Golf Club. In preparation for tournaments, the golfer practices for eight hours a day, every day of the week, says Follet-Smith. PHOTO: Grace Henderson
Like father like son
While his community might have been complacent, his father, Robert Follet-Smith, shaped his work ethic and encouraged his development in the game.
His father had dreamt of becoming a professional golfer himself, but a motorbike accident and a broken wrist in the 1980s had ended those ambitions.
“It makes my dad very proud,” Follet-Smith says, about his own golfing career. “I did it for a long time because of that. When it gets tough, I do it for him.”
Robert recalls the first signs that his son might pursue golf as a career.
“Ben’s favourite toy when he was about four was a set of plastic clubs. He would play for hours hitting air balls around the garden.”
Soon, his “air balls” became three-piece balls, and the aspiring professional began competing in junior tournaments around the country.
“Golf has always been serious to me. I didn’t have a social life from about 15 to 19, because golf was all I did. I practiced and played every day,” he says.
Golfer Benjamin Follet-Smith, pictured at the Stellenbosch Golf Club, has a love for animals. One of his first memories of golf is catching chameleons on the golf course as a child. PHOTO: Grace Henderson
The game begins
The career of Follet-Smith was soon shot out of the Harare bunker and onto the international fairway at the age of 18, when he received a scholarship to attend Mississippi State University in 2013. Enrolled as a Division One (D1) athlete, the young sportsman was up against a swollen schedule of practice, play and academics.
“I went there knowing I was going to play against the best people. That was the goal. To test myself against the tip-top, and to see if I could go anywhere,” he says.
There, in the deep south of America, Follet-Smith refined his golfing skills and shot academics into the background.
“I think I got a minor in economics, by mistake. I didn’t know what I was going to do in the beginning. I just wanted to play golf.”
Having graduated from university with a major in marketing in May 2017, the Zimbabwe Professional Golfers Association (ZPGA) soon granted Follet-Smith professional golfing status. This transition from amateur to professional playing, allowed the athlete to participate in regional tours and to earn an income through competitive play.
“Then things started happening. I won the first tournament that I played in, the National Aids Council tournament in Zimbabwe. That got me into the West African Golf Tour,” he says.
Golfer Benjamin Follet-Smith is not superstitious. But, he says, for good luck he would never wear his socks on the wrong foot on days that he competes. PHOTO: Grace Henderson
Staying on course
In 2019, shortly after his ascent into the realm of professional playing, Follet-Smith won the Cape Town Open, which boasts a prize fund of R3.5 million, and also serves as a major event on the Sunshine Tour. It is a premier tournament that remains one of the key fixtures on the South African golfing calendar.
He secured his second win of the open in 2023.
“Winning the second time was just as big as the first. It proved I could do it again,” he says.
Yet, the athlete’s career was not without a swing and a miss.
“My biggest setback was when I lost my Asian Tour card. I didn’t play well, and I missed 17 cuts in a row,” he says. The certification grants professionals the playing rights for Asia’s premier tours, and Follet-Smith was pushed to pivot.
“As soon as you get comfortable you get complacent. And when you get complacent, you start losing ground,” he says.
Zimbabwean golfer Benjamin Follet-Smith’s parents have always been supportive of his career choice. “It’s been a dream of mine. They didn’t have a choice,” he says. PHOTO: Grace Henderson
Looking ahead
The setback also revealed the harsher realities of life on tour. After nearly a decade as a professional golfer, Follet-Smith says the sport is not always a life spent comfortably on the green.
“It’s frustrating when you want to take a break. You’re playing badly and you’re just burning money. It’s super, super expensive,” he says, rubbing his hand across his well-kept beard. “It’s also really lonely. You don’t have your friends or anyone around.”
But despite the difficulty of the game, Follet-Smith’s determination had not withered.
“It’s the want to win. You can’t do it any other way. So, if you want to win, then you have to sacrifice,” he says. He slurps the now melted ice from his glass.
“I love competing. I’m good at something and I can win at it, so I keep trying to win,” he says.
Matthew Crisswell, the golfer’s caddie for the last five years, describes Follet-Smith as “confident, loyal, and competitive”. Crisswell says that although the golfer maintains a relaxed and humorous demeanour off the course, “once he goes […] he becomes switched on. I call it beast mode.”
Now ranked as one of Southern Africa’s top professional golfers by the DP World Tour, a premier global circuit for male professional golfers, Follet-Smith has fixed his focus on the greens that lie ahead: “Top 30 in the world is the goal. I’ve got another 400 spots to go.”