‘Hobbers’ was born in Mafikeng. He lived part of his life in Zambia and represented the country in the 1966 Eisenhower Trophy. He also lived in Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia.

Hobday turned professional in 1969. He spent his regular career mainly on the Sunshine Tour, where he won six times and the European Tour, where he won the 1976 German Open and the 1979 Madrid Open. As a senior, he played mainly in the United States on the Senior PGA Tour (now Champions Tour), where he claimed five titles between 1993 and 1995 including one senior major, the 1994 US Senior Open.

He won the South African Open Championship in 1971, and he went on to take three titles in Zimbabwe – the Rhodesian Dunlop Masters and the Victoria Falls Classic in 1978, and the Rhodesian Open in 1979.

Back in South Africa, he won the 1981 ICL International at Zwartkop Country Club and then the Trustbank Tournament of Champions in 1985.

Selwyn Nathan, executive director of the Sunshine Tour, expressed his sadness at the loss of Hobday. “His passing is a massive loss to the game of golf in general, and in South Africa in particular,” he said. “He was a wonderful player and a larger-than-life character who gave everyone who played with him or watched him play a great deal of pleasure.

“On behalf of the board, staff and the players of the Sunshine Tour, I wish to convey our deepest condolences to his family and friends.”

- Sunshine Tour