For Barend Botha, caddie Max Hansen, journey moves from South Africa to Korn Ferry Tour

Sometimes, you don’t pick the caddie, the caddie picks you.

After Botha secured status for the 2024 North America Swing on PGA TOUR Americas, he found himself without a caddie, until an old friend reached out.

“So funny enough, my brother caddied for me at Q-School,” Botha said. “He got a job offer and it was easier for him to pursue that than try to get a visa and carry for me. He was on the phone with Max one day, then he came into my room and he was like, ‘I think Max would caddie for you.’”

It didn’t take much convincing to get Hansen on the bag, and Botha made an offer his friend couldn’t refuse.

“Max is like, ‘I’ll caddie for you,’” Botha said. “I was like, ‘It will basically be a free vacation, all expenses paid.’ And he’s like, ‘Sweet, I’ll do it.’”

“It was nice for me to have someone on the bag who had knowledge of my game,” said Botha, who finished No. 4 in the Fortinet Cup. “Max and I played a lot of golf in high school. He knew when I wanted to be aggressive and when I didn’t. He knew which kind of shots I could pull off if I was in a tough position, so it made me very comfortable. I wasn’t really stressed out there.”

Botha and Hansen went to the McKinley Reid International Academy in George, and despite growing up in the same town and attending the same school, they had to navigate a language barrier early in their friendship.

“It was quite a small school, and when I came, I could only speak English, whereas Barend was predominantly Afrikaans, so we didn’t click immediately,” Hansen said. “Oddly enough, in the South Africa U19 Match Play Championship, we actually got drawn against each other. That was quite a tense encounter; I’d say we said about five words the whole round.”

“In school we played a lot of golf together, amongst other things,” Botha said. “We played a lot of soccer with all of our other friends and would go to the gym and lift.”

As the pair developed as friends and competitors, and grew as golfers, the possibility of playing collegiate golf in the United States came into the picture. With the help of their coach, Adam McKinley, the two were encouraged to pursue the opportunity to play in the U.S.

“Our coach from the academy was really pressing everyone to go to college and go play collegiate golf,” Botha said of McKinley. “In his mind, he thought it was the best thing to do for South Africans, and golfers in general.”

“Adam McKinley was a great mentor of ours, and definitely pushed us to look for scholarships in the States,” Hansen said. “It was definitely thanks to Adam that we went to America.”

“I can get very serious, and sometimes I over analyze things,” Botha said about his mental game. “Max would get me out of my head and make me just play golf.”

Hansen also had the job of keeping Botha in a good mindset, and he had the jokes to get the job done.

“He’s a very funny person,” Botha said. “It helps me not to get down on myself because he’d always make a funny comment or joke to get my mind back to my happy place.”

Between Botha’s ability and Hansen’s charisma, the duo had the foundation to find success fast. While Hansen’s jokes played a role, it was his background as a player and his ability to motivate that made the biggest impact on the bag.

“I think what makes our relationship special is Max is a very creative player,” Botha said. “He’s very confident and he pushes me to be creative and confident in myself. If he believes that he could pull off a shot, he makes me believe I can do it as well. We have good balance between being serious and having fun.”

It’s hard for anyone to not have fun hanging out with their best friend, and next year they’ll get to hang out on the Korn Ferry Tour.