Jaco Phillipus van Zyl (born 23 February 1979) is a professional golfer from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Career

Van Zyl was born in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

. He won the South African Amateur in 2000 and turned professional the following year, immediately joining the Sunshine Tour. He won for the first time on the tour at the

Platinum Classic The Platinum Classic was a golf tournament on the Sunshine Tour. It was founded in 1995, and was played at the nine-hole Mooinooi Golf Club, North West Province, South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is ...

in 2005. In 2007, van Zyl played on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

, having gained his card at the 2006

qualifying school In professional golf, the term qualifying school is used for the annual qualifying tournaments for leading golf tours such as the U.S.-based PGA and LPGA Tours and the European Tour. A fixed number of players in the event win membership of the ...

. He made the 36-hole cut only four times in 21 tournaments during his rookie season and finished 227th on the money list. In 2009, van Zyl recorded the biggest win of his career at the

Telkom PGA Championship The South African PGA Championship is one of the most prestigious golf tournaments on the Sunshine Tour. It is generally played in February, depending on the Tour Schedule, with a prize fund of 2 million rand, and is currently held at Eye of Afr ...

and went on to win twice more during the season and finish in 4th place on the Order of Merit. Having won four more tournaments on the Sunshine Tour in 2010, Van Zyl ended the year by finishing in 5th place at the final stage of the

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fift ...

to earn his place on European Tour for the 2011 season. He had a good first season with five top-10 placings and finished 50th on the

Race to Dubai The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fift ...

. This included a playoff loss at the

Trophée Hassan II The Hassan II Golf Trophy is a golf tournament in Morocco hosted by Prince Moulay Rachid. The tournament was founded by, and is now named for, his father, Hassan II, who served as King of Morocco. The tournament was originally staged as an invita ...

in April.

David Horsey David Horsey (born 1951) is an American editorial cartoonist and commentator. His cartoons appeared in the ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' from 1979 until December 2011 and in the ''Los Angeles Times'' since that time. His cartoons are syndicate ...

beat van Zyl and Rhys Davies when he birdied the second extra hole of the playoff. In November 2015, van Zyl finished runner-up at the

Turkish Airlines Open The Turkish Airlines Open is a European Tour golf tournament played annually in Turkey since 2013. In both 2013 and 2014 the tournament was the penultimate event of the European Tour Final Series. The first three tournaments were held at the Mont ...

. He placed one shot behind

Victor Dubuisson Victor Dubuisson (born 22 April 1990) is a French professional golfer who plays on the European Tour. Amateur career Dubuisson was born in Cannes. He enjoyed a successful amateur career, during which he won several major amateur tournaments, incl ...

, after being tied for the lead after 54 holes. In February 2016, van Zyl reached the top 50 in the

Official World Golf Ranking The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986. The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolli ...

for the first time. In January 2017, van Zyl was defeated in a sudden-death playoff on the European Tour for the second time. He lost to

Wang Jeung-hun Wang Jeung-hun or Wang Jung-hoon ( ko, 왕정훈; born 7 September 1995) is a South Korean professional golfer. He plays on the European and Asian Tours. He is from Seoul, South Korea. In 2016, he won the European Tour's Trophée Hassan II on ...

at the

Commercial Bank Qatar Masters The Qatar Masters was a European Tour golf tournament held at Doha Golf Club in Doha, Qatar. When founded in 1998, it was one of two European Tour events to be staged in the Arabian Peninsula, but was at one point, one of six. From 2005 to 2007 ...

, who birdied the first extra hole to defeat van Zyl and Joakim Lagergren. In September 2022, van Zyl won his first tournament in over six years at the Gary & Vivienne Player Challenge. He finished two shots ahead of

Hennie Otto Hendrik Johannes "Hennie" Otto (born 25 June 1976) is a South African professional golfer. Otto was born in Boksburg. He has played golf on the European Tour since 2000 having graduated from the Challenge Tour, but has only finished within the ...

Amateur wins

*2000 South African Amateur

Professional wins (16)

Sunshine Tour wins (15)

Sunshine Tour playoff record (3–3)

Other wins (1)

*2003 Event 6 – State mines G.C. (Diners Club Tour)

Playoff record

European Tour playoff record (0–2)

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied

Results in World Golf Championships

''Results not in chronological order before 2015.'' QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = tied

Team appearances

Amateur *

Eisenhower Trophy The Eisenhower Trophy (World Men's Amateur Team Championships) is the biennial World Amateur Team Championship for men organized by the International Golf Federation. Since the tournament was first played in 1958, it is named after Dwight D. Eisen ...

(representing South Africa):

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Professional *

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 concept i ...