Innehållsförteckning för May 2023 från Compleat Golfer

Ernie Els has been winning golf tournaments since he was 10. In March this year, he won in his fourth decade as a professional when he claimed the Hoag Classic on the PGA Tour Champions. And nothing has changed. From 10-year-old Ernie Els to 53-year-old Ernie Els, the desire is still the same. To win, and to one day leave this world knowing he never stopped working to play this game to the utter best of his own ability. For all that Ernie Els is outside golf, the game itself has always been at the core of his purpose. He is a successful businessman with wine, biltong, clothing, apparel and even a line of pet food to his name. He is a partner in the highly successful ASM Sports Group…

RULES Dealing with wind on the golf course is quite normal, and it often makes playing an interesting challenge over and above the other obstacles on the course. But when the wind really gets up like it did during the SDC Championship at St Francis Links, it can present some challenges in terms of the Rules as well. The Rules do not dictate a ‘speed limit’ above which the course becomes unplayable, but all major Tours will have their own policies and procedures on how to deal with the wind. The first option is always to look at predicted weather and keep green speeds within reason. At St Francis, however, wind speeds of up to 70km/h were recorded and even if the greens were like Velcro, it would not have…

Plettenberg Bay has always held an allure for travellers across South Africa and further afield. A coastal town set beside the Keurboorns River lagoon on the one side and the majestic Robberg Nature Reserve jutting into the Indian Ocean on the opposite side, and with several beautiful beaches in between, it truly is a spectacular destination. Venturing inland to the Knysna forest and Harkerville area the diversity of the area is hard to beat. A lesser-known river of the Plettenberg Bay precinct is the Piesang River which is known to have been a docking area for passing ships as early as 1630. The river was navigable for quite a way up and this produced a hub of activity and business within the valley area, making it one of the earliest…

Daniel Bennett recorded one of the game's most dominant victories when he won the 2023 Nomads South Africa Boys Under-19 Stroke Play Championship by 21 shots in March. Not only did he set a 36-hole record at Pecanwood Golf Sc Country Club and improve the 20-stroke tournament winning margin record set by Aldrich Potgieter just 12 months previously, but the 17-year-old Gauteng North golfer led from start to finish with a record 34-under score. Bennett opened with flawless rounds of 62 and 61, beating the previous record set by Hennie Otto at the 2010 Vodacom Championship at Pretoria Country Club by three shots. Then he left the field trailing in his wake on moving day with a thirdround 68, which included his only bogey of the tournament, and was the…

ASHLEIGH BUHAI COLUMN There is no place like home! It had been a long three years since I had played in South Africa on the Sunshine Ladies Tour/Ladies European Tour and oh, how I missed it! There really is no better feeling than playing on home soil in front of lots of fans supporting you. Before the Covid-19 pandemic struck I always did my best to get back to play the Investec SA Women's Open but due to a date change, travel restrictions and now living in the US full time, it was just too difficult to do over the past three years. I knew this year it was going to be tough to add it into my schedule, with it being my fourth week in a row with quite…

BRANDON STONE COLUMN I was amazed when I saw the prizemoney breakdown for this year's Players Championship, with the winner, Scottie Scheffler, taking home close to $4.5-million. While this is the absolute top of golfs totem pole, I thought I should draw a more accurate illustration of professional golfs finances. Before we can even look at professional golf, we should have a look at the cost of amateur golf in South Africa. After all, the likelihood of someone having not played amateur golf and then making the pro ranks is low, to say the very least. A typical amateur golf season would consist of around 20 tournaments. Let's say you're lucky enough to be able to stay at home for half of those events, meaning you'll travel for 10 events.…

GARY LEMKE COLUMN Recently I slipped down a flight of stairs in the most South African way. It was raining lightly and I had been to a braai (yes, we do that, even if it's not sunny) and I was saying my goodbyes, while carrying ‘takeaway’ meat from a host who, as usual, had cooked too much Wearing my flip-flops I slipped on the stairs and fell squarely on my back. Basically, I had a clean break to five ribs and my scapula (shoulder blade) and despite being discharged from ER I had to return two days later and was admitted to hospital for more scans and tests after coughing up blood, which went on for 10 days, as well as blood in my urine. And so on. And the…

SIGNATURE HOLE 16th hole, par tour. 325m The 16th lies in the centre of the back nine surrounded by bush and towering yellowwood trees. At 325m it is not long but its clever design by course architect Fred Hawtree brings course management to the tore. Off the elevated back tee, however, it can be a huge challenge to find the fairway even though it is straight The tee also offers a great view of the course, but the downside is the added elevation allows the predominant wind to have more influence on ball flight, so be sure to take that into account. The fairway widens the closer you get to the green but at about 20m out the Piesang River crosses the front of the green so a well-flighted approach…

MEN OPEN 1 (1) Jonathan Broomhead (Durban CC) 2 (4) Daniel Bennett (Royal Durban GC) 3 (3) Kyle de Beer (Port Elizabeth GC) 4 [2] Aldrich Potgieter (Pinnacle Point GC) 5 (8) Francois van der Walt [Silver Lakes CC] 6 (18) Pascal Gunther (Bryanston CC) 7 (5) Altin van der Merwe [Humewood GC) 8 (7) Jordan Burnand (Ebotse GC) 9 (-] Oliver Goldhill (Magaliespark GC) 10 (14) Werner Deyzel (WoodhiU CC) 11 [6) Simon du Plooy (Krugersdorp GC) 12 (-] Connor Mackenzie (Randpark GC) 13 (10) Fbbrizio de Abreu (Woodhill CC) 14 [12] Ivan Verster (Pinnacle Point GC] 15 (11) Warwick Purchase (Benoni CC) 16 (17) Johan Christian Kriek (Pretoria CC) 17 [9) Jordan Wessels (Mooinooi GC) 18 (15) Jean Pierre van der Watt (Humewood GCI 19 (20) Dylan Kayne…

2022 revisited: Justin Thomas capped a breathtaking comeback by beating Will Zalatoris in a three-hole playoff to win The PGA Championship after Chile's Mito Pereira blew a one-shot lead on the final hole. The playoff ended a day of pulsating drama at Southern Hills Country Club that saw Thomas stage one of the greatest fightbacks in Majors history and Pereira suffer one of the most calamitous collapses. Seven back at the start of the final round, Thomas seized his chance in the playoff to clinch the Wanamaker Trophy with a tap-in par on the 18th. It was a second Major victory for Thomas, who won The PGA Championship in 2017. ‘I had a good feeling,’ said Thomas. Although I was so far back, there weren't that many guys ahead of…

CG CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES T he fact that the average golfer in South Africa loves competition and has a desire to compete against golfers from all over the country led to the first Compleat Golfer Championship Series. This is an individual Stableford competition, played in three divisions, A, B and C, giving all golfers a fair chance of becoming a champion. This particular series started in September and October last year with participating golf clubs hosting a qualifier for their members. The winners of all of these, over 60 club days, qualified for a regional semi-final early in 2023, with the hope of making it through to the Grand Final in March. It was an incredible five months of competitive golf. Things now got down to the nitty gritty, and a…

Rasmus and Nicolai Hojgaard The pride of Denmark, the identical twins made history when they won DP World Tour events in successive weeks in 2021. Now both multiple winners, the pair, who were part of the winning Eisenhower Trophy team in 2018, look set to challenge for Ryder Cup spots this year and, at age 22, are regarded very much the future of the European game. Minjee and Min Woo Lee The Australian brother and sister have been making waves over the past 24 months, with older sister Minjee becoming a double Major champion (2021 Evian Championship and 2022 US Women's Open) and Min Woo winning the Scottish Open, a Rolex Series event. Min Woo recently broke into the world's top 50, following a string of solid results on the…

BRANDON STONE This month: Football at Old Trafford Being the typical South African, I'm a massive sports fan. To me there's only one football team, the Red Devils, Manchester United. My love for Manchester United stems back to when I was a young boy. It was over a few years when Manchester United came to South Africa for their pre-season tour, playing against the Soweto giants Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs. This was the first time I had ever seen a world-class football club. Watching the likes of Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes in the flesh was incredible. From that day on I was hooked. I set myself the goal of watching the Red Devils play at Old Trafford, the Theatre of Dreams. ‘I was awestruck when I…

L ife comes at us fast. Remember Covid-19? Of course we do, a global pandemic not experienced for a hundred years. But the show goes on, it always does. Here we are, heading into the 2023 PGA Championship, the second men's Major of the year, but with memories related to the pandemic. How so? It was the first Major to be played during Covid-19, in August 2020, pushed back three months from May because of the standstill the pandemic created across society, and sport, that year. Collin Morikawa, playing in only his second Major, won the 2020 PGA Championship at Harding Park, ironically sealed with a shot on the 16th hole on the Sunday that is said to have reverberated around the world. He hit his drive on the 294-yard…

So much is changing in golf's landscape that it borders on confusion. It seems we've seen the last of the WGC Match Play events and the introduction of ‘designated events’ to the PGA Tour, to help offset further distrctions caused by the LIV Golf Series. ‘Right now, for next season's schedule, it didn't work. But matchplay has been a staple out here. That will certainly be a consideration as we go forward,’ said Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, ahead of the 2023 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship, won by Sam Burns at Austin Country Club. At the heart of matchplay's demise is that the big names are often casualties in the rounds leading up to the big Sunday finale and TV companies reckon that the eyeballs are not there…

GARTH MILNE FITNESS Not only does the aroma of brewed coffee cause pleasure, it also has powerful antioxidant properties. Antioxidants neutralise free radicals and thus protect the body's cells from damage caused by pathogens. Coffee has also been linked to improved cardiovascular health. However, the caffeine in coffee also has the potential to increase stress hormones, depress sleep function, deplete minerals, create blood sugar imbalances and may be a precursor for an addiction. Let's look closer into caffeine. It is a stimulant that has an effect on the central nervous system. It can increase alertness as well as reduce drowsiness. Caffeine's primary mechanism is that it is believed to block an inhibitory neurotransmitter called adenosine at certain synapses in the brain. The more adenosine, the greater the tendency to fall…

JACQUES KRUYSWIJK If it's commitment you're after, look no further. There are not many players who very clearly give as much in pursuit of their dreams than Jacques Kruyswijk. And that makes life demanding. So it's been a tough period in the career of the two-time Sunshine Tour winner who made his breakthrough at the 2016 Cape Town Open, as he recovers from knee surgeries and learns to deal with simply being human. ‘I'm healthy for the first time in a while’, he says. ‘I'm still struggling a little bit with my back, but I've sort of made peace with it over the past three or four years. But the two knee surgeries I had were quite a bit of a setback for my scheduling. I'd worked really hard the…

ELS FOR AUTISM For years Nico van Rensburg was applying his craft alongside some of the best golfers in the world. But for the past nine years, he has been the key component in the life-changing work the Els for Autism foundation has been doing in South Africa. With multiple initiatives and groundwork projects in progress. Van Rensburg's desire to give back to the game he loves most is unrivalled. That is partnered with the fact that he is also coaching some of the country's brightest young golf talents by providing them with the necessary insight and experience to improve their technical ability. ‘Nine years ago I started working for Ernie as a consultant and I am now his commercial manager for South Africa. We have grown and changed quite…