Nic Henning (born 26 April 1969) is a South African
professional golfer
A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...
.
Professional career
Henning states he had "no choice" but to become a professional golfer as he was born into a big golfing family; his father,
Graham Henning, and three of his uncles were professional golfers.
He qualified for the Sunshine Tour before the 1992–93 season. His best performance during his early years was a runner-up performance at the
Zimbabwe Open
The Zimbabwe Open is a professional golf tournament held in Zimbabwe, currently played on the Sunshine Tour.
History
The tournament debuted in 1984 and was part of the Safari circuit from 1985 to 1992, a series of events in Africa played by pro ...
at the beginning of the 1993–94 season.
Henning qualified for the European Tour before the 1994 season. He did not play well, recording only one top-10 and did not come close to keeping his card.
He returned to South Africa where he played for the remainder of the 1990s and recorded several top-10s before finally winning the 1999
Vodacom Players Championship. He defeated Northern Ireland's
Darren Clarke
Darren Christopher Clarke (born 14 August 1968) is a professional golfer from Northern Ireland who currently plays on the PGA Tour Champions and has previously played on the European Tour and PGA Tour. He has won 21 tournaments worldwide on ...
, then one of the top players in the world, in a playoff. He still regards it as his top achievement as a professional.
He would finish in second place on the South African Tour's Order of Merit for the 1999–2000 season.
The following year, Henning qualified for his only major championship, the
2000 Open Championship
The 2000 Open Championship was a men's major golf championship and the 129th Open Championship, held from 20 to 23 July at the Old Course in St Andrews, Scotland. Tiger Woods, 24, won his first Open Championship and fourth major title, eight ...
, and his only
World Golf Championship
The World Golf Championships (WGC) were a group of annual professional golf tournaments played from 1999 through 2023 created by the International Federation of PGA Tours as a means of gathering the best players in the world together more freque ...
event, the
WGC-American Express Championship. He missed the cut at the Open but finished T-17 at the WGC event held at
Valderrama Golf Club
The Real Club Valderrama (; "Royal Valderrama Club") is one of the best known golf clubs in the world. It is located in the Mediterranean resort of Sotogrande, San Roque in the Andalusia region of southern Spain, up the coast a few miles from th ...
, even placing in the top-10 after the first round.
In 2001 Henning qualified for the European Tour for the second time. At two early events in South America, he recorded consecutive top-10s but his play quickly regressed after that. He would finish #145 on the Order of Merit and did not keep his card.
Henning returned to South Africa during the early 2000s and would have much success. He won the 2003
Royal Swazi Sun Classic and the 2004
Capital Alliance Royal Swazi Sun Open
The Investec Royal Swazi Open was a golf tournament on the Sunshine Tour. It was first played in 1971 and was played at the Royal Swazi Spa Country Club in the Ezulwini Valley, Eswatini. Since 2003, it was played using a Modified Stableford Sys ...
. He recorded his fourth and final win at the 2005
Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour defeating
Doug McGuigan
Douglas Gordon McGuigan (born 7 August 1970) is a Scottish-South African professional golfer. He has won eight times on the Sunshine Tour between 2003 and 2017.
Early life
McGuigan was born in Durban. His father, Francis McGuigan, was a Scotti ...
by a shot.
Later in the year, in October, he tied
Anton Haig
Anton Jason Haig (born 8 May 1986) is a South African professional golfer.
Golf career
Haig was born in Nelspruit. He turned professional on 1 September 2004 and plays on the Sunshine Tour and the Asian Tour. He has won four times worldwide wi ...
after four rounds at the Seekers Travel Pro-Am but lost to him in a playoff. In 2008, he also finished the
Nashua Golf Challenge and
MTC Namibia PGA Championship tied in regulation but lost both in playoffs.
Professional wins (4)
Sunshine Tour wins (4)
Sunshine Tour playoff record (1–3)
Results in major championships
CUT = missed the half-way cut
''Note: Henning only played in The Open Championship.''
Results in World Golf Championships
"T" = Tied
Team appearances
*
World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...
(representing South Africa):
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Henning, Nic
South African male golfers
Sunshine Tour golfers
Golfers from Pretoria
White South African people
1969 births
Living people
20th-century South African sportsmen