Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2024 i Compleat Golfer

BRANDON STONE This month: Wrestlemania I’m under no illusions when it comes to professional wrestling. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But I’ve been a WWE fan forever, and so has my brother. We used to drive my mother insane, wrestling with each other and any teddy bear we could find. Breaking bedside lamps and occasionally giving each other a black eye, but man, we loved it. So when the opportunity to go to Wrestlemania presented itself, my brother and I jumped at it. We attended Wrestlemania at the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium, which was incredible. Two nights of over 80 000 people packed in was unlike anything I had ever experienced. Losing my voice from screaming and buying novelty T-shirts saw my inner child bursting out. But the thing that…

DAVID HOWELL Whoever coined the phrase ‘nice guys finish last’ clearly never met nor heard of David Howell. In addition to a CV that is the envy of many, the English pro has a reputation for being one of the friendliest and most accommodating people in the game. His fellow players love him, fans love him, sponsors love him, the media love him. Even the few who are mildly ambivalent about him secretly love him. That’s why, when he set a new record for the most DP World Tour appearances at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in October, tributes and plaudits were rich in supply. The occasion also earned the 48-year-old an invite to the media centre, a place to which he has become less and less accustomed. ‘I feel…

Given the price of a brand-new Pro VI these days, this headline is not taking into account the financial loss. I’m referring to how, in certain scenarios, a lost ball under the Rules is not necessarily the worst thing that can happen to you. Since the first set of Rules was formulated, a core principle has been the progression of play from tee to green with the ball with which you started the hole. This principle is still in the current code and is literally the first Rule in the book. Play the ball as it lies after the previous stroke is the number-one Rule in golf. The rest of the book essentially deals with exceptions to this Rule and when you’re allowed or required to play your next stroke…

GARY LEMKE COLUMN Golf, bloody hell hey? Thriston Lawrence had teed off in the final round of the Joburg Open at Houghton Golf Club with a three-shot lead over Dean Burmester, That lead evaporated just three holes into the final round and by the 5th hole, the 26-year-old was two shots behind his playing partner, who went on to claim a third career DP World Tour victory. Here was Lawrence, the reigning SA Open champion and four-time winner on the DP World Tour, looking like a 14handicapper early in his round. He looked a shadow of the man who opened with a round of 62 and led by those three shots with 18 holes to go. He eventually signed for a 75, eight shots behind Burmester. This is a cruel…

MEN OPEN 1 (1) Altin van der Merwe (Bellville GC) 2 (2) Daniel Bennett (Silver Lakes CC) 3 (3) Jordan Burnand (Ebotse GC) 4 (4) Pascal Gunther (Royal Cape GC) 5 (7) Jordan Wessels (Mooinooi GC) 6 (5) Ivan Verster (Pinnacle Point GE) 7 (6) Dylan Kayne (Pearl Valley GE) 8 (9) Oliver Goldhill (Magaliespark GC) 9 (10) Simon du Plooy (Krugersdorp GC) 10 (8) Janko van der Merwe (Magaliesberg CC) 11 (13) Keagan Crosbie (Centurion CC) 12 (11) Damian Osner (Pinnacle Point GE Sc Mossel Bay GC) 13 (17) Fabrizio de Abreu (Woodhill CC) 14 (16) Astin Wade Arthur (Mount Edgecombe CC) 15 (14) Christiaan Heyman (Bloemfontein GC) 16 (12) Bryan Newman (Pecanwood G&CC) 17 (-) Nash de Klerk (Pecanwood G&CC) 18 (-) Meyer Pauw (Stellenbosch GC) 19 (20) Jean…

2023 winner: Rory McIlroy watched his 15-foot birdie putt roll into the cup, clenched his fist and let out a roar to celebrate victory. McIlroy finished birdie-birdie to shoot four-under 68 and win by a stroke from Patrick Reed, who shot 65. The 33-year-old had won the 2022 DP World Tour's season-long Race to Dubai as well as the PGA Tour's FedExCup. 'Mentally, today was probably one of the toughest rounds I have ever had to play because it would be really easy to let your emotions get in the way,' McIlroy said. 'I just had to really focus on myself and forget who was up there on the leaderboard. This is probably sweeter than it should be.' McIlroy started a year with a win for the first time in…

ANDY CAPOSTAGNO COLUMN A CORNER DEDICATED TO GOLF’S TRIERS Has it ever occurred to you that the driving range is one of the many things that make golf unique? What other sport builds practice facilities entirely separate from the place where you play? You don’t hear people saying, ‘I’ve got a spare half hour, think I’ll pop to the range and throw a rugby ball around.’ You might think a cricket net serves the purpose, but try netting alone and see how much fun you have. Not the least remarkable thing about Viktor Hovland is that he comes from Norway, where the golf season is approximately four months long. He had to practice in front of the mirror and on all-weather driving ranges. Summer in Norway features the midnight sun,…

We need to talk about Dean Burmester. Let’s start the conversation with his two recent wins on the DP World Tour, the Joburg Open and the SA Open. Yes, sure, at golf courses on 'home' soil that he is familiar with. However, Houghton Golf Club and Blair Atholl Golf & Equestrian Estate might only be separated by 50km but they're worlds apart when it comes to playing conditions. At Houghton, Burmester shot 18 under par for his four rounds and a week later at Blair Atholl he won by three shots after shooting 11 under. He proved himself to not only have a bazooka instead of a driver off the tee, but a short game that stood up to the pressures of a professional tournament. And while there may be…

A decade ago, The Els Club Copperleaf in Centurion had the distinction of being the longest course played on the European Tour. It's still a monster. You're in exclusive territory playing an Els Club course, as South African golfing legend Ernie Els has his name on only four of them worldwide, the others being in Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia. This one has a special personal connection for Els, as the land it is built on used to be his grandfather's farm. It opened in 2007 and was known at the time as Gardener Ross. At more than 8 000 yards (7 340m) it is a beast by any stretch of the imagination. Luckily for us mere mortals, there are five sets of tees to choose from and it’s a wise…

GARY & VIVIENNE PLAYER INVITATIONAL You know that there’s more to life than a game defined by the scoreboard. Sure, it can unite a nation when things go your way, like it did with the Springboks over three successive weekends when they won by a single point, and ultimately lifted the Rugby World Cup. And yes, when it comes down to that final putt to either make the weekend cut in a golf tournament, or to attempt that last winning putt, the scoreboard matters. However, when it comes to occasions like the Gary & Vivienne Player Invitational at the Lost City, a pitch and a putt away from the Gary Player Country Club at Sun City which hosted the Nedbank Golf Challenge only a week earlier, it really isn’t about…

His share of fourth at the Vodacom Origins of Golf Final at Pezula matched his best performance of the 2023-24 season on the Sunshine Tour to date, but it meant a whole lot more for Nikhil Rama than the two other times he shared fourth and the other two top-10s. It’s been a really solid first half of the season, with five top-10s on the Sunshine Tour (and one on the Altron Big Easy Tour). ‘It’s been a good start to the season,’ agrees Rama. ‘Pezula stands out right now as it was a qualifier for the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, and with the top-five finish, it also got me into the Joburg Open. And over the next few months there’s lots more golf to come with the co-sanctioned tournaments…

For Gary Player, the doyen of South African golf, the fact a local male golfer hasn’t won a Major since Ernie Els claimed The Open Championship in 2012 is an indictment on our game. Player won a record nine Majors from 1959 to 1978 but since Els claimed his second Claret Jug, one stroke ahead of runner-up Adam Scott at Royal Lytham, it has been a barren spell for South Africa’s premier golfers who haven’t dined at the top table. ‘I hear how great South African golfers are today but I don’t see them winning the world’s biggest tournaments,’ Player says from his base in Philadelphia, USA, before taking a trip to the Cape to check on his beloved race horses and host the Gary & Vivienne Player Invitational at…

ERIK VAN ROOYEN When they tell you that golf is a lot like life, they’re telling you of the story. In golf, whatever happens that week - win or lose, succeed or fail - you get to try again the following week. In life, you get the text message that Erik van Rooyen received on the Wednesday before the PGA Tour's World Wide Technology Championship he would end up winning for his second title on the game's leading Tour. 'He sent us a text on the Wednesday morning saying that he doesn't have much time left - six to 10 weeks. It ended up being 10 days,' Van Rooyen says as his voice falters, and not for the first time when he’s spoken of the passing of his friend Jon…

SIGNATURE HOLE 6th hole, par four, 375m The par-four 6th hole is widely regarded as the signature hole on the course. It's certainly one of the most picturesque At 375m from the club tee, your opening shot should be played down the right-hand side of the fairway which slopes quite severely from right to left. It's probably not a hole where the driver should be pulled out, with a 4-wood or hybrid being enough to find the ideal landing spot. Go too far left and you risk bringing the large expanse of water into play. You might also have to play with the ball below the level of your feet, so why risk making the game harder than it already is. At least in the middle of the fairway you…

Two days before he teed it up at Blair Atholl Golf and Equestrian Estate, Altin van der Merwe had never heard of the Freddie Tait Cup, but during the Investec South African Open prizegiving, he stood proudly next to 2023 champion Dean Burmester with the magnitude of having his name etched on this particular bit of silverware fully sunk in. The 27-year-old had already wrapped up the Leading Amateur award as the sole amateur to make the 36-hole cut and weekend rounds of 73 and 74 saw him finish in a tie for 57th. ‘During the practice round, the other amateurs were talking about this Freddie Tait Cup. I didn't have a clue what they were on about, so I googled it. When I saw some of the past winners’…

ASHLEIGH BUHAI COLUMN Winning the Women’s Australian Open again was a nice full stop to my year. Playing on two golf courses makes it a long week because you’ve got to get practice rounds in on both courses. They are both very good and quite different to each other. We only played one round on The Lakes Course and The Australian is probably one of the top-10 courses I’ve played in my career. It was in immaculate condition with slick greens. So, playing on two courses was tiring, but overall it is a really good tournament and the crowds are phenomenal. They were mostly there to watch the big Aussie players like Minjee Lee but we get to be on the backend of it so I don’t really care. I…