Nobuhle Dlamini during the first round of the L.P.G.A. qualifying tournament on Wednesday. She is attempting to be among the 20 players who will earn full 2017 L.P.G.A. status, or among the 25-plus players gaining partial membership.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Nobuhle Dlamini does not feel like a long shot at this week’s L.P.G.A. qualifying tournament.
She would not have made her first journey to the United States this summer to compete in the annual series of qualifying events if she did not believe she was ready to face the world’s best golfers.
Sure, her nation, Swaziland — a tiny southern African country of 1.2 million people nestled between South Africa and Mozambique — is not known for golf.
And Dlamini is the only ranked Swazi woman, at No. 872, joining three Swazi men co-ranked at No. 1,871. By contrast, 10 South African women are ranked.
But Dlamini (whose name is pronounced No-boo-kley Glah-meen-ee) is one of 157 players who advanced through two earlier L.P.G.A. Q-School stages to reach the final 90-hole tournament, which began Wednesday.
On Sunday, she wants to be among the 20 players earning full 2017 L.P.G.A. status, or among the 25-plus players attaining partial L.P.G.A. membership.
“I’m not surprised to be here,” said Dlamini, 25, of Mbabane, Swaziland. “I believe a good game plan will get me through.”
Her path in golf began at age 12 when her father, Johannes Dlamini, introduced her to the game. He was a self-taught golfer and learned as a caddie at Royal Swazi Country Club.
He eventually became a first-tee starter, worked his way into the pro shop and then became certified as a golf coach in 1999. He started a junior golf program in 2000, and his daughter began playing in 2004.
“I used to watch him play, and when he practiced I would pick up the balls,” she said. “I wanted to play golf well and to beat all my young friends.”
Nobuhle Dlamimi, 2013 TuksSport Sportswoman of the Year (Golf) Award
Dlamini also played soccer, tennis and basketball and was a sprinter, earning distinction as her high school’s “Ambassador of Sports.”
But it was golf that ultimately made her leave the comforts of her quiet homeland to experience higher competition.
“There are maybe 700-800 golfers in Swaziland and there are two 18-hole courses and several nine-hole courses,” she said. “I needed to get better.”
By good fortune, Dlamini met some businessmen at a golf tournament in Swaziland who recognized her talent and offered to pay for her education and coaching in South Africa.
So Dlamini moved to Johannesburg to attend high school, while practicing and playing in amateur tournaments. She graduated in 2009 and moved back to Swaziland in 2010.
Then a teenager, she received some scholarship offers to play college golf in the United States, but none were full rides. The businessmen who had previously sponsored her had moved on to different companies by the time she was considering college.
“Maybe I could have come to the States to play college golf, but I didn’t have the money for a plane ticket to get here,” she said.
Dlamini was selected to represent Swaziland in 2010 for the All-Africa Challenge Trophy, which she won. There she learned about a college scholarship program at the University of Pretoria.
She was accepted, with the R&A, one of golf’s governing bodies, paying 40 percent of her annual college expenses. A top South African military official, whom Dlamini met while playing golf, helped pay the rest.
In 2012 and 2013, Dlamini was the top-ranked female amateur in South Africa, winning a dozen tournaments sanctioned by Women’s Golf South Africa, including the 2013 South African Women’s Amateur Stroke-Play and Match-Play Championships.
Graduating in 2013 with a degree in sports management, Dlamini turned pro in 2014 and earned status on the Ladies European Tour. After losing her L.E.T. card in 2015, she played Europe’s developmental tour.
She also regularly contended on the Sunshine Ladies Tour in South Africa.
Read more by Lisa D. Mickey at NewYorkTimes.com
