World Golf Championships are reserved for the elite players in the sport, and joining that group this week for the second time in as many WGC events is Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who has overcome a number of arduous hurdles on the road to cracking the world’s top-50.

For those unaware, Bezuidenhout’s destiny was shaped earlier than most when on the streets of his native South Africa the then two-year-old picked up and drank from a bottle of coke – the contents of which contained rat poison.

The South African narrowly avoided death after the hospital completely pumped his stomach to purge him of the poison. Still, the poison infected his nervous system, leaving Bezuidenhout with a speech impediment that would have him develop a severe case of anxiety.

In a blog post for the European Tour last year, the 25-year-old explained the depths of the level of anxiety the stammer caused him growing up.

“I was basically just living in my own world because I was always scared of having to engage in conversation. When I talked to people, I knew I would struggle and it would take time for me to deliver my words, so I always had a fear of answering the phone, saying my name or being asked a question.”

Through therapy, Bezuidenhout got his life back on track but was then hit with another bombshell in 2014 when he was nominated for a random drug test that resulted in him being handed a 2-year ban from the sport.

The South African had been prescribed Beta Blockers to help control his stutter, and his sentence was subsequently reduced down to nine months.

What has happened since then has been a remarkable rise from being outside the world’s top-1500 on his return and outside the world’s top-500 at this point last year, to inside the world’s top-50 at the age of 25.

Victory on the Sunshine Tour in 2016 was Bezuidenhout’s first triumph. He then followed that up last year, hitting the headlines by winning one of the most significant European Tour events on offer, the Andalucia Masters.

Since then, the 25-year-old has gone from strength to strength. He finished third at the European Tour’s flagship event – the BMW PGA Championship, before recording a top-15 finish at the DP World Tour Championship to end 2019 inside the world’s top-100 for the very first time.

In 2020, things have only got better.

After a playoff defeat at the Dubai Desert Classic, the South African finished T21 at the Saudi International before notching a win at the Dimension Data Pro-Am last week for his second win on the Sunshine Tour. A victory which included a clutch eagle on the final hole to win by a stroke, in a week where he recorded a mammoth 29 birdies.

From rat poisoning, crippling anxiety, and a drugs ban, Bezuidenhout is now the second-highest ranked South African player in the world and will compete in his second WGC this week, having finished T17 at the HSBC Champions back in November.

Bezuidenhout’s story is inspirational and a testament to his courage and defiance. He’s a player which you are surely only going to hear more and more of on golf broadcasts in the future, and a man who will have his eyes firmly set on securing a spot at this year’s Masters – a feat he will achieve should he remain inside the world’s top-50 at the end of March.

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Wow what an unbelievable week here at @fancourtsa for the @_dimensiondata_ . Really pleased to have pulled off the win. Off to Mexico now..????????

A post shared by Christiaan Bezuidenhout (@chrisbez07) on Feb 16, 2020 at 8:12am PST