Innehållsförteckning för November 2023 från Compleat Golfer

BRANDON STONE This month: When in Rome … A few years ago my wife and I were joined by a couple of friends and we went on a once-in-a-lifetime road trip down the west coast of Italy. It was the first time I'd ever gone on a ‘holiday’ to Europe. Yes, I know some think my life is a constant holiday but I do actually work from time to time. We drove all the way from Milan to Rome. I can't go into every single thing that we did – I'd take up the entire magazine – but I'd be remiss not to mention my absolute favourite stop of the journey, our final destination, the city of Rome. Rome is without question my favourite city in the world. I'm a…

The day after the final round of the Blue Label Challenge in midOctober, the Gary Player Country Club course played host to golf media, sponsors and others. It's the traditional ‘final round’ whereafter no one plays the course again until the world's leading 64 qualified players arrive for the Nedbank Golf Challenge, the penultimate event of the DP World Tour season. One of the disadvantages of watching the tournament on television is that the cameras mask just how long and hilly the 7 000m-plus course is. There's quite a bit of run-off across fairway slopes and it's not unusual to have the ball well below, or above, your feet when playing your second shots. Most of the greens are not overly large but offer plenty of tricky pin placements and…

SIGNATURE HOLE 15th hole, par three, 152m This is an elegant little hole. With the tee sat back in the trees, any wind is difficult to read so be sure to gauge its strength and direction before getting to the tee On the first time of playing, the route to the green requires a carry of 135m to avoid the water On the second time of playing, the angle to the green changes completely although a similar club is required as the hole plays a mere 2m shorter. This is a perfect example of the Grimsdell layout showcasing how a subtle change in tee box can create a very different hole layout and playing experience. As such it is easy to assume the nine holes are repeated on the second…

ASHLEIGH BUHAI COLUMN I've had a quiet few weeks. I was supposed to play at the Walmart Arkansas Championship and The Ascendant but I had to withdraw because an old back injury flared up about two months ago. I was advised to take five to six weeks off just to let it settle and I ended up having to have cortisone injections in my back. Hopefully it will ease and I'll be ready to play again at the end of the season. This time last year I also had to have the injections for my back. I started to feel it build up recently so I messaged the doctor, who's a South African guy, which is quite nice, when I was in Cincinnati at my last tournament. I told him…

There have been 1 040 individual matche: played at the 44 Ryder Cups. Of these the United States has won 501, Europe (including Great 13ntam/Great. Britairn and Ireland up to 1977) has won 39S with 143 matches halved. Overall, the USA have won 27 times, with GB/GB & Ireland/Europe claiming 15 wins, while thgrtrophy has been shared twice. But, how did the 2023 version in Rome stack up in terms of history? 1 Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland combined to beat Ameticans Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka 9&7 in the foursomes, which is the biggest win in that format of the famous competition. The previous biggest margin was 7&S. In 1985 Jose Maria Canizares and Jose Rivero beat Tom Kite and Calvin Peete by that score; while in 1993 it…

While his closing 76 left a little to be desired, Matthew Spacey knew things were on track for what could become his best season on the Sunshine Tour after that final round of the FNB Eswatini Challenge at the end of August. Then he came oh-so close to pulling off a maiden Sunshine Tour win when he finished second at the weather-hit South African PGA Championship at St Francis Links at the end of September. That was achieved despite having to play 36 holes on the final day in the face of looming bad weather. And that weather came in early in that final round, ensuring conditions were tough, making his closing 73 a lot more satisfying than that Swazi 76 a month earlier. ‘I would say FNB Eswatini Challenge…

ANDY CAPOSTAGNO COLUMN A CORNER DEDICATED TD GOLF'S TRIERS The humble golf course I call home has been in the market for a second-hand tractor to mow the rough. With due ceremony, it arrived in late August, just in time to join battle with grass made bold by the arrival of spring. In order to help pay for it, a golf day was organised at the end of September, and a rather famous former Springbok rugby player honoured us with his mighty presence. It was my job to chauffeur him around the course in an attempt to play one hole with every fourball. I like a challenge. To add to the complexity, at the scheduled 10am shotgun start, the mercury had already climbed to 28°C. By midday, it was 36°C…

Not since 2015 when Major champions Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson (right) strode the fairways and trampled around in the bush at the Gary Player Country Club, has there been an American challenge as strong as it is this year. Eight years ago, the 2011 PGA Championship winner Bradley and 2012 US Open champion Simpson teed up at the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City and finished in ties for 16th and 21st, respectively, while it was Robert Streb, fourth behind Marc Leishman, who actually flew the Stars and Stripes highest that year. However, it's been 18 years since an American won ‘Africa's Major’, when Jim Furyk went back-to-back. The field had been restricted to 12 golfers in those two years, as it was when Corey Pavin won in 1995.…

Afunny thing happened at the end of this year's Ryder Cup. As the victorious European team congregated in the interview room for their winners’ press conference, live mics picked up their small talk. ‘I've been looking forward to this for the last 24 hours,’ said Rory McIlroy with more than just a hint of sarcasm. The four-time Major winner knew an inquisition into his car-park fracas with caddies Joe LaCava and Jim Mackay the previous night was imminent. His fellow Irishman Shane Lowry had an altogether different concern. ‘Who's getting the beers in?’ asked the 2019 Open champ. It wasn't long before the spotlight turned to Ludvig Aberg. ‘He really wishes he was still in college,’ laughed Lowry. ‘He is!’ replied McIlroy. ‘It's going to hit him hard when he…

REINARD RULES I'm sure most of us golf fans would have been enthralled by the action during the recent Ryder Cup. For those interested in the Rules, three situations stood out illustrating how the Rules work in practice. Jordan Spieth, seeing his ball deep in long grass, thought it was embedded and therefore entitled to free relief. Upon calling the referee walking with the match, the referee disagreed with Spieth's assessment and denied relief. After asking for a second opinion, one of the roving referees also determined that the ball was not embedded as he was not convinced that the ball was indeed in its own pitch mark. This ruling illustrated the working of this rule in that two conditions have to be met for the ball to be considered…

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 (5) Ivan Verster (Pinnacle Point GE) 6 (6) Jordan Wessels (Mooinooi GC) 7 (8) Janko van der Merwe (Magaliesberg CC) 8 (7) Dylan Kayne (Pearl Valley GE) 9 (11) Oliver Goldhill (Magaliespark GC) 10 (9) Simon du Plooy (Krugersdorp GC) 11 (10) Keagan Crosbie (Centurion CC) 12 (12) Damian Osner (Pinnacle Point GE & Mossel Bay GC) 13 (14) Bryan Newman (Pecanwood G&CC) 14 (13) Fabrizio de Abreu (Woodhill CC) 15 (-) Christiaan Heyman (Bloemfontein GC) 16 (15) Jean Pierre van der Watt (Humewood GC) 17 (16) Astin Wade Arthur (Mount Edgecombe CC) 18 (17) Pieter Rossouw (Pearl Valley…

CALENDAR 2022 winner: England's Tommy Fleetwood successfully defended the Nedbank Golf Challenge title, three years after winning the competition for the first time at the Gary Player Country Club at Sun City. ‘I am going to get stuck in,’ he promised on Saturday after finishing the third round three shots behind the leaders, Belgian Thomas Detry and Dane Rasmus Hojgaard. While the co-leaders faded in the final round, Fleetwood carded a five-under 67 for a one-stroke win. The 31-year-old was level with Ryan Fox on the 18th tee in the final round and a brilliant long putt and a tap-in helped Fleetwood to a par while the New Zealander carded a bogey five. Fox had to play a ‘blind’ second shot after a wayward drive, was short of the green…

In the film Gladiator, a dying Marcus Aurelius tells his trusted general, played by Russell Crowe, ‘There was once a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish. It was so fragile. And I fear that it will not survive the winter.’ Golf has certainly had its whisper moment these past two years. Money has entered the game at unprecedented levels, and its effect can be seen at its most obvious in LIV Golf and the Saudi PIF or more subtly as was the case during Patrick Cantlay's ‘Capgate’ at the Ryder Cup. Old Tom Morris could well be lying on a deathbed somewhere whispering those same words of Marcus Aurelius to his son, Young Tom Morris: ‘There was once…

Originally a working farm, the Bosch Hoek land dates to the 1850s and the arrival of the settlers in the Midlands area. The original owners, Jan Abraham Naude and Lucas Janssen van Vuuren, acquired 5 863 acres of land. It was a large farm by any standards and as farming in the area became more popular, parts of it were sold off to leave what is now Bosch Hoek farm. Over the years, owners changed and in the 1960s, well-known businessman Charles Barlow bought the farm. He was part of a group that decided they wanted their own private course in the upmarket suburb of Bryanston, Johannesburg. They decided to commission famous golf course designer Bob Grimsdell to design the private course. Part of the deal was that Grimsdell would…

And then reality sets back in. Last month I teed it up at my 241st tournament on the Sunshine Tour, at Glendower, and after being out-driven by 40 yards on every tee shot by the young bucks, this 40-year-old pro returned home to his new reality of running a family business. Very happily I add! Off to Sun City the travelling roadshow of the Sunshine Tour went next. For the first time in two decades I was genuinely exhausted after a single tournament week. It was not so much the physical efforts of ‘walk, find, hit and walk’ either, but the mental side of trying so hard that drained me. After a solid opening round of even par, I went into the second round feeling confident about making the projected…

When Matt Fitzpatrick claimed the 2022 US Open, he joined a select group of golfers by becoming just the 12th male golfer with a ‘z’ in his name to win a Major Championship. Meanwhile, Allisen Corpuz's triumph at the US Women's Open a year later took the ladies’ tally to just seven. Who exactly are these 19 golfers who make up Generation Z? Gene Sarazen The first of the ‘z-crew’ to win a Major, Sarazen won a total of seven Major Championships throughout a distinguished career that saw him become the second player, after Bobby Jones, to win the career Grand Slam. Sarazen's modem Grand Slam was the first to include The Masters – as the event only began in 1934 – and the American was also credited with inventing…