Jbe Kruger says he is playing really bad golf.

Ahead of his defence of the Mercuries Taiwan Masters, this week, he says his game is far from where it should be.

Speaking from Taiwan Golf & Country Club, the famous venue that has been the home of the tournament since 1987, he says: “I think it is the worst golf I have ever played, to be brutally honest.”

However, there is method to the madness. When he won here last year he was in a similar state – as he was before nearly all of his wins in the professional game.

“In my life it has been a funny road,” says the 39-year-old South African.

“All my victories have come when I am not playing well. I think there was one victory when I have actually played well, thinking I can actually win this week. All the other ones have come from hardship.”

In an extraordinary finish 12 months ago, when the tournament was battered by Typhoon Krathon and reduced to 54 holes, he won the tournament by two shots from Korean Jeunghun Wang and Thailand’s Pavit Tangkamolprasert.

Jbe Kruger. Picture by Graham Uden/Asian Tour.

He was tied with Wang playing the last but holed a six-foot birdie put while Wang made bogey.  It was a superhuman effort as all 54 holes were played over the weekend, with no play possible on the first two days because of the storm.

“Golf is a funny game in that way. You never know when it is going to come together and when it is not, when there is a going to be a typhoon, and when there is not. Someone said this week is the Typhoon Masters – not the Taiwan Masters. Every year is the same thing,” explained Kruger, whose wife Denise caddied for him last year, and is on the bag this year.

His victory last year was his third on the Asian Tour but first in five years. Remarkably, despite recurring trepidation he has also won five times at home on the Sunshine Tour and is two-time champion in Japan.

“It was quite brutal last year,” he says. “We as juniors grew up playing 36 holes a day but as you get older, and when you turn professional, you only play 18 holes a day. It wasn’t something we were not used to.

“It was actually hardest for Denise having to carry, but then luckily, they said they can use the buggies for the caddies, and it made my life easier not to worry about her. And then it was simply about keeping your energy up. We are not 21 or 22 anymore, and when you get a bit older, it’s difficult to concentrate over the last few holes.”

Jbe Kruger pictured with his wife Denise. Picture by Graham Uden/Asian Tour.

He ranks his win here last year in the top three of his victories.

He adds: “Henrik Buhrmann, my good friend, who played in Asia for many years, says this event is one of the top three hardest events. He would say if you can make the cut here, you can make it anywhere.”

The Mercuries Taiwan Masters starts tomorrow and with Typhoon Ragasa skirting the country, beware of Jbe Kruger – he is not playing well.