Indholdsfortegnelse for June/July 2020 i Compleat Golfer

1. Golf Digest simulated the 2020 Masters in April. Who won the virtual Green Jacket? 2. What are the new dates for The Masters which was postponed due to Covid-19? 3. In a Q&A for GolfTV, Tiger Woods was asked what gum he chews in competition. What was it? 4. Which woman was named as an inductee, along with Tiger Woods, in the World Golf Hall of Fame for 2021? Clue: she died in 1944 at the age of 51. 5. A 66-year-old former professional golfer claimed to have made 51 holes-in-one, from 1966 to 2007. When asked if he would take a lie detector test to prove his claim, he calmly replied: ‘Yes. Doesn’t bother me a bit. I know it’s all true because I was there.’ Who is he?…

The Sunshine Tour has spent muc of the Covid-19 lockdown trying to mitigate the financial strain put on many of its members and, most especially, the caddies, while also showing solidarity with the amateur game and all its stakeholders, who have been far more severely affected by the closure of golf courses. But the Tour has also devoted its time in lockdown to ensuring it can grow the game once normality returns, by boldly pursuing new markets, especially through the digital space. The groundbreaking Virtual Golf Challenge reached out to potential new fans and gave sponsors exposure. In the absence of live golf, fans were able to watch several head-to-head challenges between professional golfers, culminating in a knockout final featuring eight contestants in June, playing for R6 500 prize money.…

When Covid-19 came in low and hard like a knifed 4-iron off a sandy lie, it caught the golfing world off-guard and altered the financial trajectory of most, if not all, golf clubs. The lucky ones have been able to withstand the hit, while others have had to restructure their club set-up and, sadly, there are those that have had to close their gates forever. Thankfully, Durbanville Golf Club, Cape Town’s ‘Jewel of the North’, sits in the former category, although this position does come with a small caveat. Most frustratingly for this popular members’ club, the paint on its massive refurbishment project had barely dried when the government ordered the lockdown. Hardly the ideal way to fetch a quick return on your investment. Yet there is little doubt Durbanville’s…

‘IT’S A WEIRD TIME OF MY CAREER’ – BRANDON STONE The three-time European Tour winner and Compleat Golfer playing editor assesses his place in the SA golf landscape ‘I’m in a particularly weird time of my career. At 27, I’m not the young guy because that age is not even remotely close to young in pro sport. At the same time, I’m not in the veterans’ club either: that feels weird, to refer to yourself as a veteran if you are only 27. I’ve been out here for a while and it is obviously coming to a time for evaluation but at the same time I do feel like I’m only getting to the peak of my powers now. For the first seven years of my career I just skated…

You are a handy golfer (handicap index of 6.3). When did the golf bug bite you? I played tennis and squash when I was growing up – all sports with a moving target! It was only in my early thirties, that I started playing golf when my husband Derrick, who had played for many years, taught me to play. You have a fairly long history in golf administration. How did it all begin? I was lady captain of Atlantic Beach Links. Thereafter, I was elected to the [erstwhile] Womens Golf Western Province executive in 2011 and served for six years, including three years as president. Between 2012 and 2014, I also worked for Womens Golf South Africa as their tournament administrator. In 2017, I was elected as vice-president of Womens…

What is your first memory of golf? I have so many fond memories from this game and the people I met along the way, but one that stands out is from my junior days. Way back in December 1996, I made my first birdie on the 12th hole at Dundee Country Club. The par three plays 134m over a dam guarded by a bunker on the front right. My tee shot landed short right leaving me a flop shot over the bunker. I only had a 9-iron in my very limited set … and this was my first chip-in and my first birdie. The memory is so vivid, even today, and I recall I was playing with my cousin Dean Kelbrick and friend Morne Potgieter. When did you decide to…

In theory, it should be easier for golf to return to normal than most other sports. At my level of the game, for instance, social distancing is built in. We meet on the tee box and on the green, while in between we go our separate ways, frequently playing entirely different holes depending on the severity of that day’s slice or hook. So it would seem simple enough to adopt the wearing of masks at the beginning and end of a hole and to eschew the traditional shaking of hands at the conclusion of the round. More difficult will be the forgoing of the halfway house and 19th hole, additions to the game that some argue should never have been accepted, while others (ie, me) would happily forgo the golf…

PGA Tour @PGATOUR It’s good to have a champion again. Congratulations, @DanielBerger59! Xander Schauffele @XSchauffele Tough pill to swallow, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Playing good golf and excited for @RBC_Heritage next week. Congrats to @DanielBerger59 on the win. Brooks Koepka @BKoepka Good to be back out there @PGATOUR. Next up @RBC_Heritage. Justin Rose @JustinRose99 Very positive week… Thanks for all the support #Team Rose. Brandon Stone @BrandonMStone Left my babies by the fire all night in preparation for today. Safe to say I’m excited about today’s round @Royal_JHB_Golf. Roland Schoeman @Rolandschoeman Thank you @GolfRSA @granthepburn for all you did to get everyone back on to golf courses. Thank you @CJBents & all the staff @Royal_JHB_Golf, you really are the heroes in keeping the golf courses in such amazing…

It seems like the world is slowly returning to ‘normal’, or should I rather say the ‘new normal’. Sporting bodies are beginning to open up all over the world, although the likelihood is that professional sport will be played behind closed doors for the foreseeable future. But even that is a bit of hit-and-miss because we’ve seen a country like New Zealand return to ‘normality’, with no social distancing, or the use of masks in public, by early June. They even had ‘regular’ crowds back at their ‘Super Rugby’ matches. But that’s not how things are evolving elsewhere. The PGA Tour made the decision to return to competition at the Charles Schwab Cup in the second week of June. This decision was rather controversial, given it was taken when there…

The mere mention of how much money they earn rankles with golf’s pampered millionaires. The pros on the major circuits play for huge prize money, but they are never happy when the media puts a figure next to their winnings. After all, that amount is skewed and gives an unrealistic account of how much they have actually ‘won’ in a tournament. It is before tax, we are reminded. The travelling, accommodation and living expenses haven’t been taken into account. Then there is the caddie’s fee to be paid. And there’s a manager who also wants their cut. Sometimes there’s an agent and even a media manager. Suddenly, the $100 000 you earned for finishing 20th at the Charles Schwab Challenge on the PGA Tour leaves you with enough to get…

Whatever our walk of life is, I’m sure we shared the same frustrations during the Covid-19 lockdown. There were a number of baffling decisions made by government when it came to restrictions around the levels, but for me it meant I wasn’t able to do what I have been for the past 13 years as a professional golfer. The novelty had well and truly worn off after nearly 70 days of lockdown in Johannesburg. There was only so much hitting balls into a net and video sessions with my coach Doug Wood I could do. Apart from the physical limitations, it wasn’t a good thing mentally. I turned professional at 17 after a long amateur career, so being out and about on golf courses and travelling to tournaments to make…

When the ‘PGA Tour University’ was announced, the news spread like wildfire across golfing media channels. This pathway programme will see the best of the best NCAA college golfers bypass the months (if not years) of ‘roughing it out’ at those dreaded one- and two-day mini-Tour events, by moving directly on to one of the PGA Tour’s sanctioned circuits. Any late-night broadcast of a PGA Tour event these days displays a leaderboard graphic with the players’ college badges. They range from the success patterns of University of Texas alumni, like Jordan Spieth, Brandon Stone and Dylan Frittelli, to Arizona State’s all-star cast of Phil Mickelson, Paul Casey and Jon Rahm. That’s before you get into a who’s who of Duke, Auburn, Oklahoma State, University of Florida and the all-powerful ‘Georgia…

THE 2019-2020 TOP CLUB AWARD ST FRANCIS LINKS World Environment Day, which is celebrated on 5 June each year, is a day that stimulates awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and public action. Since it began in 1974, it has grown to become a global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated in over 100 countries. In South Africa, the TOP CLUB is recognised for exceptional Environmental Compliance and Good Governance. The winner for 2019-2020 is St Francis Links Golf Club in St Francis Bay in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. What St Francis Links does well is link the importance of biodiversity in a practical way while demonstrating that the club is committed to good land stewardship principles and taking positive steps towards addressing biodiversity loss.…

This year our playing editor is counting down his 12 favourite golf courses in South Africa. This month he has selected Irene Country Club. My first ‘country club experience’ was at Irene. I must have been about seven years old when I went to watch my dad play a few holes. I remember arriving and thinking, ‘Wow!’ The place was absolutely buzzing. There were families playing tennis and there were heaps of people playing bowls. The local Villagers Cricket Club was batting on the cricket oval next to the 18th fairway. It was so overwhelming. Previously, all I knew was golf courses and clubhouse pubs. I had never thought there could be more to a club. Then we get to the course itself. Wrapping its way around the Irene Dairy…

Jim Furyk’s residence in downtown Jacksonville’s Riverside neighbourhood is roughly 30 minutes’ drive north of the World Golf Hall of Fame. But the PGA Tour mainstay has made only two trips to the museum in his storied career. The first came in 2012 to see his good friend Phil Mickelson inducted into the Hall. The second came four years later, when he contributed the hat, ball and glove from his record-breaking round of 58 at the Travelers Championship. A third – and permanent – trip to the Hall of Fame seems inevitable. Spanning nearly three decades on Tour, Furyk has amassed 17 career victories – including a Major at the 2003 US Open – and more than $71-million in career earnings. Throw in a pair of sub-60 rounds for good…

MEN OPEN 1 (2) Casey Jarvis (State Mines CC) 2 (1) Martin Vorster (Pinnacle Point GC) 3 (4) Kyle de Beer (Port Elizabeth GC) 4 (5) Yurav Premlall (Glendower GC) 5 (9) Werner Deyzel (Woodhill CC) 6 (6) Samuel Simpson (Bellville GC) 7 (16) Christo Lamprecht (Pinnacle Point GC) 8 (3) Jordan Duminy (Pinnacle Point GC) 9 (11) Christiaan Maas (Pretoria CC) 10 (8) Luca Filippi (Milnerton GC) 11 (10) Ryan van Velzen (Benoni CC) 12 (12) Christiaan Burke (Bloemfontein GC) 13 (-) Aneurin Gounden (Glendower GC) 14 (13) Rigardt Albertse (Potchefstroom CC) 15 (18) Jordan Burnard (Ebotse GC) 16 (-) Altin van der Merwe (Humewood GC) 17 (-) Kieron van Wyk (Ruimsig CC) 18 (19) Gregory Mckay (Mt Edgecombe CC) 19 (17) Francois van der Walt (Irene CC) 20…

The 1860s Willie Park Snr, Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris Golf’s first Major championship – the 1860 Open Championship at Prestwick Golf Club – was essentially played only to settle the argument of which golfer would replace the late, great Allan Robertson as the finest player in Britain and, therefore, the world. Over the following decade, two players would stand out as obvious contenders, and between them Willie Park and Tom Morris senior won seven of the first eight Opens. For good measure, they also recorded six runner-up spots during this period. This early rivalry expanded to three when Morris’ son, ‘Young’ Tom Morris, aged just 17, announced his arrival as golf’s first prodigy by beating his father to the Open title in 1868. He would go on…