Kaiyuree Moodley- follows her true calling

Where are you currently ranked and what is your biggest golfing achievement to date?
I am currently ranked 6th on the Investec Order of Merit and 1st in the 2025 Rookie of the Year on the Sunshine Ladies Tour.

My biggest achievement to date would be participating in the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

What advice would you give aspiring young golfers who want to make a profession of golf?
Golf is a game that you will never perfect, you will go through the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in your journey, but the most important part of all this is that you never forget the joy and happiness or why you started playing golf. If you love what you do you will never feel like it cannot be achieved. 

How did your upbringing shape who you are now?
I was brought up in a home that celebrated being different. I had such a strong support system where my mom would help me with my schoolwork and make sure I was keeping my grades up while my dad would travel with me to tournaments and help further my game. They celebrated the fact that I didn’t conform to societal norms (a trait I share
with my mom). Having learnt to balance work with golf from a young age allowed me to compete at a top tier American university and these are still values I use in my day to day life as a professional golfer. 

How old were you when you started playing golf and what drew you to the sport?
I started playing golf at the age of 4. I loved sports as a kid! My mom came home with a plastic set of golf clubs from Pick n Pay and I just loved hitting the plastic ball around the house. My family then relocated to Johannesburg and I started going for lessons and I fell in love with golf!

How has your golf career progressed?
My career has progressed nicely! In my amateur career, I had won multiple provincial events and had the pleasure of representing South Africa as well. This jumpstarted my career and helped me play college golf at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where I had two individual wins! At the beginning of the year, I created a vision board of what I wanted to achieve in my first season of the Sunshine Ladies Tour as well as the Ladies European Tour and one of the goals was to break into the Top 10 of the Investec Order of Merit. I knew it was a tall task, but I believed in my ability and the preparation I had put in to achieve this goal.

How did you feel when Investec approached you to be sponsored as a pro-golfer? 
I was so excited! I had first noticed Investec when I competed in the 2020 SA Women’s Open. At that tournament, I saw Nicole Garcia and Stacy Bregman who were two of Investec’s Sponsored Golfers and I knew I wanted to join them someday. When Investec reached out to me, I couldn’t believe that I would be joining a line of incredible women who align with my values and spread the same message of furthering women’s golf.

What can be achieved in the South African women’s golfing fraternity through Investec’s sponsorship of South African Women’s Open?
Having Investec as the main sponsor of the Investec South African Women’s Open brings an opportunity to showcase our talent. It gives female South African golfers the chance to compare themselves to an international field and test where their strengths and weaknesses are. Investec prides themselves in furthering women’s golf and this has been a huge step to bringing awareness to women’s golf in South Africa.

What or whom do you draw on to remain positive and get through adversity, on and off the golf course? 
Definitely my mom! No matter how I played that day, she will always ask me “Did you have fun?” And my answer would be yes because she taught me it's never a “be all end all” situation. I wanted to play professional golf because I enjoyed doing it, and sometimes when I don’t play well I get very hard on myself but she helps me remember that golf is and always will be my passion. She will always tell me that “tomorrow is another day, so just go do your thing.” She’s been my rock and always helped me to stay positive when I felt down.

What’s your proudest achievement to date?
I am a Youth Olympian!

What’s the one improvement or change that you would like to make to the game of golf?
I would like for female professional golfers to be given the same prize fund as the men. In my eyes, we play the same game, so why should the prize fund be different?

How do you keep a healthy balance between your personal life and your career?
I try to leave the “golf talk” at the golf course. Being a professional golfer is my job so I want to leave any frustrations or statistical talk at the golf course so that I can enjoy family time at home without any distractions. I try to schedule my day so that I have some time to spend with my family and friends because this gives me a break from practise.