| Paul Friedlander | |
|---|---|
| Personal information | |
| Born | c.1970 |
| Sporting nationality |  Eswatini |
| Career | |
| College | Oral Roberts University |
| Status | Professional |
| Former tour(s) | Sunshine Tour |
| Professional wins | 3 |
| Number of wins by tour | |
| Asian Tour | 1 |
| Sunshine Tour | 2 |
Paul Friedlander (born 28 September 1970) is an Eswatini professional golfer
Friedlander was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is from Swaziland (since 2018 renamed to Eswatini). His mother, Helen (nėe de Beer), was an accomplished sportswoman, representing Northern Rhodesia in hockey.
Friedlander attended St. Marks Primary School and high school at Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa in Mbabane, Swaziland. Waterford was more than a school at the time. As the first multi-racial, non-denominational and co-educational school in the region, it was a political statement in the face of apartheid South Africa. In 1988, when Friedlander was a member of the school's Students Representative Council, he met King Charles (then the Prince of Wales) when Charles visited the school as Patron of the United World College movement.
A talented all-around sportsman, he was introduced to the game of golf by his father at a young age and grew up playing golf at the Royal Swazi Golf Club, the only 18-hole golf course that existed at the time and was Swaziland champion several times while still in his teens. There were no driving ranges then and he practiced on football fields that usually had cattle and goats grazing on them.
Friedlander attended college at University of Houston where he red-shirted as a Freshman, and at Oral Roberts University in the United States. Friedlander had a successful college career. In 1993, he played for Meadowbrook Country Club in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. [1] Friedlander transferred to Oral Roberts University as a college junior where he won six tournaments and was named to the 1994–95 NCAA Division 1 Academic All-American Team.
He had multiple wins including the 1992 Elkins Lake Fall Classic, [2] , the 1992 Boatmen's Bank Collegiate, the 1993 Hal Sutton Intercollegiate Classic, was a medalist at the 1993 Oklahoma State Amateur tournament, [3] and won the 1994 UALR Intercollegiate. [4]
In 1995, Friedlander turned professional. He played mainly on the South African and Asian golf tours with significant success. As a top 5 player in Swaziland, he was entitled to automatic membership of the South African Sunshine Tour but was denied his tour card because Swaziland had no official order of merit. He was forced to play in the Tour Qualifying Tournament at Crown Mines GC in Johannesburg, which he won. [5]
He earned his Asian Tour playing rights at the Asian Tour Qualifying Tournament in Johor Bahru (Malaysia), while suffering from severe food-poisoning.
He shot 10-under par 62 in the second round of the 1997 Tugu Pratama Indonesian PGA Championship which was the lowest round on the Asian Tour that year.
He won the 1995 IDC Development Classic in South Africa by 8 strokes. [6] [7] The following year, Friedlander finished runner-up to James Kingston at the Bushveld Classic.
In 1996, he also won the Gadgil Western Dubai Creek Open an Asian Tour "major" which carried a five-year tour exemption. [8]
In 1998, Friedlander won the Stenham Royal Swazi Sun Open in a playoff with Scott Dunlap, an official event on the Sunshine Tour in his home country of Eswatini.
Friedlander was always interested in business and despite multiple wins in a short professional career spanning the ages of 25 to 28, he retired from professional golf after less than four years. He is now a businessman. As of 2015, he was Swaki Group Chief Executive and worked as an executive for Galito's Flame Grilled Chicken. [9]
Friedlander is Jewish. [10]
Friedlander met his future wife, Gemma (nėe Collyer) in Swaziland. She was a news presenter on Swazi T.V. They married in 2003 when she was 20 and they have five children together.
Friedlander is an Eswatini citizen and lives in London.
In 2014, Friedlander was inducted into the South Africa Golf Hall of Fame. [11]
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 19 Oct 1996 | Dubai Creek Open | −8 (69-70-69-72=280) | 4 strokes |  Kyi Hla Han,  Craig Kamps |
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 Sep 1995 | IDC Development Classic | −11 (64-68-72-69=273) | 8 strokes | Neale Gandy |
| 2 | 28 Feb 1998 | Stenham Royal Swazi Sun Open | −15 (65-69-67=201) | Playoff |  Scott Dunlap |
Southern Africa Tour playoff record (1–0)
| No. | Year | Tournament | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1998 | Stenham Royal Swazi Sun Open | Scott Dunlap | Won with par on second extra hole |
Eswatini, formally the Kingdom of Eswatini and also known by its former official name Swaziland and formerly the Kingdom of Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its north, west, south, and southeast. At no more than 200 km (120 mi) north to south and 130 km (81 mi) east to west, Eswatini is one of the smallest countries in Africa; despite this, its climate and topography are diverse, ranging from a cool and mountainous highveld to a hot and dry lowveld.
Artifacts indicating human activity dating back to the early Stone Age have been found in the Kingdom of Eswatini. The earliest known inhabitants of the region were Khoisan hunter-gatherers. Later, the population became predominantly Nguni during and after the great Bantu migrations. People speaking languages ancestral to the current Sotho and Nguni languages began settling no later than the 11th century. The country now derives its name from a later king named Mswati II. Mswati II was the greatest of the fighting kings of Eswatini, and he greatly extended the area of the country to twice its current size. The people of Eswatini largely belong to a number of clans that can be categorized as Emakhandzambili, Bemdzabu, and Emafikamuva, depending on when and how they settled in Eswatini.
Mbabane is the most populous city in Eswatini, and is one of the two capitals, serving as the executive capital.
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Paul Friedlander at the Official World Golf Ranking official site