The Winemaker - David Frost
Some players leave their mark on the game in more ways than one. One such player would be David Laurence Frost, a South African golfer hailing from Cape Town. Not only does he have two dozen tournament wins spread across 4 continents under his belt, but
at the same time he runs a wine business which produces vintages named after golf legends such as Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus.
The family run wine business is where it all began. His father’s vineyard was the place where David first started playing golf; using the money he earned from picking grapes, he eventually bought his first set of clubs and golf balls.
Initially Frost caddied for his father but started playing golf seriously after graduating from Paarl Boys’ High School. He represented the Western Province Juniors when he was 18, and was selected for the Junior Springbok team in the same year. He was the
1979 N-Transvaal Closed Champion and the Closed Captain. In 1980, he was selected for the Springbok team.
In 1981 Frost turned professional, however, his first tournament win wouldn’t come till 1983 at the Gordon’s Gin Classic. Like many leading South African golf players, he made his move abroad to the European Tour. In 1984 he clinched his first European Tour
victory at the Compagnie de Chauffe Cannes Open. He would stay winless in the European tour for another 15 years.
Besides the Sunshine Tour, Frosts major career wins came from the PGA Tour. From 1985 onwards Frost mostly played on the US-based tour where, in 1988, he won his first PGA tournament: The Southern Open. This was followed by a string of victories at US Tournaments,
the most significant of them being the win at the 1989 NEC World Series of Golf over Ben Crenshaw. The match whittled down to a playoff between the two, with Frost eventually coming out on top on the second hole.
From 1988 to 1993 David won a total of 8 tournaments in the PGA Tour. This twice allowed him a place on the top ten of PGA Tour’s money list: 9th in 1988 and 5th in 1993. During this time, for 86 weeks between 1988 and 1994, Frost also
held a place in the top ten of the Official World Golf Rankings.
Frost was active outside of the American PGA as well. Between 1989 and 1992 he won the Million Dollar Challenge thrice. Played in South Africa after the conclusion of the PGA Tour, the tournament attracted several of the best players around the world, mainly
because of its lucrative $1 million winning purse. He is one of the only two players to have won the tournament thrice, the other one being Ernie Els-also a South African legend.
Frost also made regular appearances at the Alfred Dunhill Cup from 1991 to 2000. The Alfred Dunhill Cup was participated in by three man teams, each representing a country. In both 1997 and 1998, Ernie Els, David Frost and Retief Goosen won the Cup for South
Africa. Also in 1998/99 calendar year he won the South African Open, which also allowed him to top the Sunshine Tour’s Order of Merit list.
After 1999 Frost took a break from his ‘hobby’ to focus on his passion: wine-making. However he kept on making infrequent appearances at tournaments. In 2005 he set a new record on the PGA Tour by making 92 putts on 72-hole at the MCI Heritage.
In 2010 Frost returned to the game, joining the Senior PGA. So far he has had a spectacular year with 4 top ten finishes and 2 wins at the 3M Championship in August, and the Mauritius Commercial Bank Open in December. At Mauritius, Frost was leading going
into the last day. He was soon overtaken by England’s Roger Chapman who took a 2 stroke lead. On the 18th hole Frost conjured up a magical eagle that tied him with Chapman and forced a sudden-death play-off. While Chapman fumbled, Frost made no
mistakes and clinched the victory.
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