Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2023 i Compleat Golfer

BRANDON STONE COLUMN This past month, I was fortunate enough to visit one of Scotland’s finest whisky distilleries, GlenDronach, and it got me thinking. I couldn't help hut notice the similarities between whisky distilleries and professional golf. It was fascinating to see how much goes on behind the scenes, much like golf. Now I’m not going to go through every step, because that would fill this entire issue, but the number of processes that happen before the spirit is even put into a barrel is astounding. Much like when you develop your golf game – it’s not glamorous, it doesn’t smell good, it’s sometimes painful. It’s countless hours of what may seem mundane tasks – but crucial to your game – like holing thousands of putts on the putting green.…

RYDER CUP The eternal city of Rome has witnessed some of the greatest battles in history. This year, it will stage another when it hosts the 44th Ryder Cup. Luke Donald's Europeans will go toe-to-toe with a United States side captained by two-time Major champion Zach Johnson at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club on the outskirts of the Italian capital. Donald and Co will be looking to do two things: regain the trophy lost in record-breaking fashion at Wisconsin in 2021 and preserve a winning run on home soil that reaches back to 1993. Johnson and his star-spangled side, meanwhile, will attempt to successfully defend the iconic gold prize for the first time in 30 years and 14 editions of the biennial clash. It promises to be another epic…

REINARD KILIAN RULES ‘Ball Roll Back’ has been in the news recently with the PGA Tour announcing that it will not implement the proposed Model Local Rule (MLR) and the World Alliance of PGAs requesting the governing bodies halt the process to implement any proposed limits on distance. The Sunshine Tour will continue, as it has always done, to abide by the decisions of the R&A and USGA when it comes to the Rules of Golf and any changes to these rules. For those still wondering, here's how this all originated and what it means for the pros and club golfers. During March this year, the USGA and R&A - who together govern the Rules of Golf worldwide - issued an update to their ongoing research into the distances achieved…

SIGNATURE HOLE 11th hole, par five, 433m The signature hole at Hermanus East course is all about avoiding the trees. You miss the trees, you should be reaching the green in three as tt is a short par five of only 433m The stroke has heen changed in the last five years from eight to four, once again reiterating the need to be accurate and find the fairway as it's not the length that makes it difficult The hole slides uphill from right to left and from the tee box it has a 10 out of 10 intimidation factor. The chute of pines enclosing the fairway is narrow, even with a driving iron in hand, and it takes a well-struck-shot to avoid trouble The brave, or foolhardy, can go with…

Arookie’s lot is often not a happy one on the Sunshine Tour but Ryan van Velzen has taken to it like a duck to water. And, in comparison to some of his bigger-name counterparts who don’t seem to be stepping up quite as successfully, he’s doing very nicely, thank you very much. The point is that not every golfer who turns professional – no matter what the circuit – is going to take the world by storm. That is particularly true when the new kid on the block faces up against experienced players who are probably every bit as talented as he is and who are scrapping for their very lives. But Van Velzen pulled off that rarest of feats for a rookie when he won during his first season…

As someone famous might or might not have said, ‘It’s the same but different’. The Solheim Cup is generally considered 'the women's version of the Ryder Cup', and in many senses that's a fair assessment. Both team events feature 12 players on each side, representing the United States and Europe. Both events are held every two years and as the calendar would have it, the 2023 versions are held a week apart at the end of September. And both are in Europe, first the women in Andalusia, Spain, and then the men in Rome, Italy. However, that’s where one should stop making comparisons. Yet, we do. The Solheim Cup in 2019 and the Ryder Cup in 2018 attracted combined crowds of over 90 000 and 270 000 respectively. That Ryder…

With the Ernie Els Charities South Africa Golf Days ready to return for the second part of their year’s calendar, the success stories from the Els for Autism Foundation continue to inspire people across South Africa and the world. Despite making a difference with associated partners and sponsors through the various golf events across the country, the foundation is also seeing continued growth through its curriculum and golf clinics for children with autism. The Els for Autism Foundation recently completed the first Emie Els #GameON Autism Golf Curriculum of 2023. Apart from the excellent work of the Ernie Els Charities South Africa Golf Days, the foundation has also yielded incredible success over the years through the programme. This curriculum is a comprehensive programme designed to integrate autism learning concepts into…

CELEBRITY How often do you play and what course do you call home? I try to play twice a week, but weekends can be scarce in the racing industry. My home course is Atlantic Beach Links. What is your handicap and what is the lowest it has been? I am currently playing off a 2.4. I was a plus 2 when I was a lot younger. Do you have a favourite ‘go-to’ club in the bag? Tony Louw, my Masters partner, gave me his Ping 5-wood to try. It wasn’t long before we become inseparable. You’re a competitive person and you’re also not short of banter among your racing mates. Does this personality extend to the golf course? Very much so. Golf is both social and competitive. Banter on the…

In the history of Major Championship golf, spanning more than 150 years across the men’s and women’s games, five left-handed players have won a Major. It’s a staggering statistic, even considering that lefties only make up an estimated 10% of the world’s population. When it cornes to golf, however, that number is even lower, with equipment sales revealing that just 8% of golfers play the game southpaw. The numbers decline even further in the women's game, where it is rare to find a lefty golfer on Tour, never mind the winner’s circle. In fact, only one left-hander has ever won a title on the LPGA Tour - and that was Bonnie Bp/ant in 1974 when she captured the Bill Branch Classic by three strokes. Diksha Dagar is a two-time winner…

BRANDON STONE This month: Champions League at the Bernabeu Back in 2015 one of my travel buddies on the European Challenge Tour managed to get us tickets to the Champions League football semi-final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid at the Bernabeu Stadium. I’d never been to a derby match before, so the Madrid derby, for a Champions League semi-final, was really an unexpected experience. The match itself was on edge the entire time. Fans from both sides of Madrid were singing their hearts out every minute of the game. But when Chicharito scored the winning goal in the 88th minute, it sent the stadium into a frenzy unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. High fives, hugs, kisses and tears were everywhere. I even went ballistic and hugged a complete stranger,…

Situated towards the back of the town, the Hermanus Golf Club course is framed by Fernkloof Nature Reserve at the base of the Kleinrivier Mountains on the north-western side. On the opposite side is part of the housing estate with occasional views of the blue ocean from some of the higher-lying holes. The course originated in the early 1900s when the local community decided the area needed a golf course. The buy-in fee for members was five shillings, which initiated the design of the original course. It was only due to the municipality, which owned the land, buying into the project that allowed for its completion. In the early 1970s, however, the course had part of the layout identified as land for the growing township in the area. Fortunately, this…

A fortnight after her first national breakthrough at the Nomads SA Girls Championship on home soil, 16-year-old Johannesburg golfer Gia Raad celebrated her first international triumph at the 2023 English Girls’ Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship. The GolfRSA National Squad member fired two eagles on her way to a final-round 68 at The Caversham Golf Club to triumph with a staggering five-shot victory on 12-under-par 276. The Country Club Johannesburg golfer opened with a tidy 71, but a second-round 66 that featured eight birdies catapulted her to pole position on seven under par. She began the final round four shots clear of England's Mia Ingham and five ahead of Ingham's compatriot Lili-Rose Hunt. Battling a balky putter, Raad carded 71 in the third round, and surrendered the lead to Hunt,…

A SHLEIGH BUHAI COLUMN We played one tournament in Europe and one in the UK before the Women’s Open. The Evian Championship in France is always a great week, it’s so pretty and is such an amazing place. I feel players have a love-hate relationship with the golf course, though. They redesigned it and made it a bit gimmicky where they put in crazy greens with big slopes. The Evian never used to be a Major, the field was the top 50 off the LPGA moneylist every year and then if you won on the LET, you got in. It was always a smaller field and it was a really fun tournament when I first played it, back when I was playing in Europe. They wanted to make it a…

REPLAY Inspired by the spirit of Seve Ballesteros, Europe pulled off one of the greatest comebacks on a golf course to beat the United States and win the Ryder Cup by 14½ points to 13½. Needing to claim eight points in the concluding singles to retain the trophy, Europe won six of the first eight encounters before Germany’s Martin Kaymer secured the vital point to retain the Cup by beating Steve Stricker 1-up. After Stricker had coolly holed his par putt from eight feet at the last, Kaymer buried his five-footer for a matching par before thrusting his arms skywards in delight as European fans erupted with deafening cheers at Medinah Country Club. ‘It’s indescribable,’ the German said as chants of ‘Ole, Ole, Ole’ echoed across the course. ‘I was…

ANDY CAPOSTAGNO COLUMN A CORNER DEDICATED TD GOLF’S TRIERS Nothing in sport polarises opinion more than unlikely victory. In cricket, if a minnow side overcomes a top-ranked team, it is automatically assumed to be the result of match-fixing. In soccer, a disputed penalty that decided the outcome can be safely attributed to a bent referee (or VAR). Golf, being the gentleman’s game, is immune from all this tawdry talk. Bobby Jones, after being praised for calling a penalty stroke on himself when alone in the rough, replied, ‘You may as well praise a man for not robbing a bank.’ But that was then and this is now. Any golfer who has ever played in a competition knows that unlikely victory is never something to be celebrated. And let’s be clear,…