GJSA Host: Fulton Allem, Southern Africa Golf Hall of Famer!

I would be lying if I said I remember watching Gary Player win his first of nine Majors at The Open Championship at Muirfield in 1959. Golf from across the pond wasn’t televised back then plus I wasn’t even born until a few months later. Even if golf was on TV there was little chance that Mom with me within were watching since Mom and Dad already had five kids running around the house. Maybe Dad and I were watching CBS when Player won his first Masters in 1961. I definitely remember the Black Knight capturing his other two Masters in the 1970s.

I really identified with the legends of South African golf when I purchased the Bobby Locke on Golf book and read it in 2001 on my Dick Donovan-inspired printed word of golf accumulation endeavor. Locke was the man who hooked his putts for accuracy and allegedly was barred from competing on the U.S. tour because he was too good. The affable character was the first South African to win a major—the first of his four Open Championships at Royal St. George’s in 1941. The South Africa golf legendary linkage goes from Locke to Player to Nick Price to Ernie Els to Retief Goosen to most recently Trevor Immelman, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel. On the ladies side there was Maud Gibb, Alison Sheard and of course the beautiful Sally Little.

The Southern African Golf Hall of Fame includes those golfers and another one of considerable success with the name of Fulton Allem. Fulty, as he is affectionately known, literally grew up in the shadows of Gary Player’s golfing stature and completes the circle of golf for golfers over age 50 in the golfing nation of 55 million people. The Allem family farm in the Orange Free State was a respite for Gary during his early years of traveling to compete against the best players around the world.

My connection to Fulty came through his daughter Nadia who I met in golf broadcasting several years ago. I was intrigued and inspired by her trip to Cape Town, South Africa in our summer of 2015 to see her father be inducted into the Southern African Golf Hall of Fame. Coming on the heels of my previous golf voyages in the Southern Hemisphere to South America (to see the Olympic Golf Course in Rio de Janeiro in its early phase of construction) and Australia and New Zealand, it was an easy decision to venture to South Africa this past winter.

I was fortunate to spend an afternoon with the champion golfer himself and his lovely wife Jennifer in their Orlando home before leaving for South Africa in early December. To say their insight and contacts made my trip successful before I even started is a huge understatement. I was prepared to go based on my media, public relations and tourism connections but Jennifer and Fulty’s generosity made the six week visit the most successful of my three World Golf Journeys to date.

The people they connected me with in South Africa, especially fellow South African and European Seniors Tour Champion Bobby Lincoln and his wife Nerina, made my time in their incredibly beautiful country simple amazing. For instance, as I was preparing to leave Johannesburg to head down to Durban and take the Garden Route to Cape Town, Bobby called me early that morning. I simply sat down and wrote down the names and the golf courses that came out of his mouth—Garth Pearson at Royal Durban—Fred Beaver at the Robert Trent Jones Junior course at the Sun Wild Coast Resort—Santa Clause at St. Francis and Brendon Timm at Humewood. Yes, it was two days before Christmas and I was even going to see Santa Clause, also known as Jeff Clause, at the incredible Jack Nicklaus signature designed resort.

But let me get to the man I need to acknowledge and thank for not only showing me the way around his country but sharing it in such an intimate way that I feel like I could have grown up there and now, after being there for six weeks, love it as much as I do America. Fulton Allem, whether by design or not, is probably way under the radar in both South Africa and here in the United States to the golfing public compared to the competitive golfing records he has amassed since turning professional in 1976.

Fifteen professional wins with eleven coming at home on the Sunshine Tour and three on the U.S. PGA TOUR. The other unofficial win was a big one—the 1993 Million Dollar Challenge in Sun City, South Africa. Fulty also played for the International Team in the very first President’s Cup in 1994. His wins on tour in South Africa exceed Nick Price by one but fall short of his buddy Bobby Lincoln by four. I am a bit surprised Mr. Lincoln did not point that out to me while he was demonstrating his exceptional game and taking his friends’ money while playing with me at Killarney in Joburg.

Enough of the introduction let’s get to the heart of Mr. Allem in this three-part video interview.

CLICK here for Part 1 of 3 of the Video Interview with Fulton Allem, Champion Golfer.

How about that? Just knock on the front door and the door opens!

Allem goes even further back in ties to the eternal golfing spirit than his childhood friendship with Gary Player by the virtue of his win in the 1993 Colonial where he beat Greg Norman by one stroke—to Ben Hogan! He sat next to him at the Champions Dinner and was able to converse with his very own “golfing guru” a few years before his passing.

The game of golf takes our emotions on a rollercoaster and we rode the rollercoaster during the interview as well. One moment we are chuckling over Fulty playing, as the defending champion, with the golfer everybody loves—the Funkster—Fred Funk—while he is winning for the first time on the PGA TOUR and the next moment Fulty is sharing a tender moment huddled with friends on the Old Course in the shadow of the ancient clubhouse saying a prayer over the passing of his dear beloved father. His dad introduced him to the game using his grandfather’s left handed clubs and then Gary Player came around and switched him over to right handed at age 5 and gave him a new set of Sam Snead First Flights. Pure inspiration and motivation right there with the youngster telling the Major Champion that he was going to beat him some day! That was brilliant!

CLICK here for Part 2 of 3 of the Video Interview with Fulton Allem, Champion Golfer.

In Part 2, Fulty talks about he came to the game, fascinated by the sound the golf ball made when he hit it and the feeling he got when he hit one right in the sweet spot. “If you challenge me I am going to go for it,” is how he explains how the never perfected game enveloped him as a youngster. “Playing golf is probably the most challenging thing I have ever done in my life…, you never get to be the best, you (only) get to be better!” Allem shot a Sunday 62 to win the 1993 World Series of Golf and a 10-year exemption on the PGA TOUR. He reminisces and shares how the legends of golf inspired him—Gary Player, Seve Ballesteros, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and his favorite striker and compressor of the golf ball Ben Hogan.

CLICK here for Part 3 of 3 of the Video Interview with Fulton Allem, Champion Golfer.

Fulty shares his top memory in golf—hugging his Dad on the 18th green after winning a million dollars in Sun City—”the feeling of accomplishment by two people who had the same dream and it came true!” When asked to speak about competing in the inaugural President’s Cup in 1994 in Virginia he responded “I don’t want to remember it too much. The week was great but we lost.” But he did go on to point out that he had the upper hand on Phil Mickelson in their individual Sunday match when the Cup was won and the match went into the record books as a half.

Fulton Allem, a champion golfer with great heart and will to compete! A great ambassador for his homeland of South Africa and for me a virtual tour guide! A member of the Southern Africa Golf Hall of Fame! Well deserved!

I see my friend Fulton Allem won the Palabora Classic 3 straight years here in 1986, 1987, & 1988!— at Hans Merensky Golf Estate In Phalaborwa, South Africa.   (Facebook Post 8 Pics, Andy Reistetter, Hans Merensky Hotel & Spa, Phalaborwa, South Africa 12/17/15)