Innehållsförteckning för December 2023 från Compleat Golfer

BRANDON STONE This month: Challenge Tour Grand Final 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. Keeping with the month's theme, I have a new favourite sporting event I've attended/participated in: the Challenge Tour Grand Final. I don't think there's a more emotional day in world golf. For many, the dream of playing on the DP World Tour is just that, a dream. Yet here they were with the opportunity to make that dream a reality. To see the tension and nerves on the faces of all 45 players going into the final round was truly remarkable. When the final round was complete, I saw a flood of emotion…

After opening in October 1931, Humewood Golf Club hosted the first of many SA Amateur and SA Opens in 1934. Many of the greats who have played it acknowledge its iconic layout and testing terrain moulded from the coastal Eastern Cape terrain. Colonel SV Hotchkin (1876-1953) was approached in 1929 to design a new course to accommodate the insatiable appetite for golf at the turn of the century in the area. A mere two years later and with armylike precision, a stunning links layout arose from low-lying coastal scrub over meandering windy terrain beside Algoa Bay. Little did they know at the time it would become one of South Africa's most famous courses and one of the few genuine links courses in the country. They could not have been in…

ALTIN VAN DER MERWE When Altin van der Merwe is asked to rate his year on a scale of 1–10, he doesn't hesitate. ‘A 10,’ he says. ‘It's been the perfect year, I couldn't have asked for it to have been any better. I had set my target as being in the top-five rankings by the end of 2023. This has exceeded my expectations.’ Van der Merwe has risen to become the No 1-ranked amateur in South Africa and it could be argued that he's something of a late developer, being aged 25 in a world where the top amateurs seem to be getting younger and younger. Not that the product of the Ernie Els & Fancourt Foundation is fazed by those kind of numbers. The ones that count are…

2022 winner: Ockie Strydom claimed a life-changing maiden victory on the DP World Tour when he won the Alfred Dunhill Championship by two shots at Leopard Creek. Strydom closed with a 69 to win on 18 under par. Adrian Otaegui took second place on 16 under par with a final round of 68, while Laurie Canter finished third on 15 under with a 64. ‘To sink the winning putt on such a prestigious green is amazing for me. Walking onto this island green is always special. It's something I always wanted to achieve. My dad has also always wanted me to win one of these,’ said Strydom, who before this had 19 runner-up finishes in his career. ‘It feels good. I've finally done it. To do it at Leopard Creek…

HAYDN PORTEOUS He was there. And, slowly, steadily, he was there less and less. Eventually, he wasn't there any more. For a couple of years, Haydn Porteous looked like one more of the next big thing kind of players who was emerging from South Africa in 2016 and 2017. Together with Brandon Stone and Christiaan Bezuidenhout, among others, Porteous seemed ready to make the world his oyster. In 2015, he won on the Challenge Tour in Kenya, beating Stone in a playoff. In 2016, he won the Joburg Open, took the lucrative Investec Cup in South Africa and had a maiden win in Europe at the D+D Real Czech Masters in 2017. He reached 166th on the Official World Golf Ranking. While there was not the kind of progress he…

The event, which began its life in 1953 as the Canada Cup, officially became known as the World Cup of Golf in 1967. An esteemed list of players, such as Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Colin Montgomerie, have all been able to call themselves world champions over the years. Yet not even a champions list as prestigious as this has been enough to save the event, as over time it began to draw fewer and fewer marquee names. The 2018 World Cup, played at Royal Melbourne and won by the Belgian pairing of Thomas Detry and Thomas Pieters, proved to be its swansong. Thankfully, we will always have the memories of what…

 Tiger Woods @TigerWoods Having the opportunity to not only compete, but also own a @TGL team to represent Jupiter is an exciting next chapter for me. I expect Jupiter Links GC to showcase the golf culture of my hometown as we compete against the best players in the world. LPGA @LPGA Round of applause for Mone Inami on her win at @TOTO_JP_CLASSIC! National Club Golfer @NCG_com Adam Long achieved driving PERFECTION on the PGA Tour. The 36-year-old became the first player in over 30 years to record 100% driving accuracy over four rounds on the Tour. Sunshine Tour @Sunshine_Tour Second victory on the Sunshine Tour this season #VOGFinal | #VOOG | #GreatnessBeginsHere | #SunshineTour DP World Tour @DPWorldTour ‘It's Africa's Major, it's a big deal to the players and it's…

BRANT FLAUM FITNESS The mighty Springboks have done it again, winning back-to-back Rugby World Cups in what can only be described as one of the mostly hotly-contested tournaments in history. It wasn't always vintage rugby that produced the victories for the men in green and gold, especially as the tournament entered the knockout stage of the French spectacle. But as they say, ‘a win is a win’. There is no comments section on the scoreboard. Our national rugby team certainly knows how to win, as evidenced by three one-point nail-biting victories in the quarters, semis and final against three top-tier teams in world rugby. This is almost unheard of in knockout rugby tournaments. And our boys did it with such aplomb – demonstrating cool, calm heads in the throes of…

SIGNATURE HOLE 6th hole, par three, 120m Nasty in its simplicity, the par-three 6th is a real tease. Unnervingly straightforward but devilishly difficult at 120m, you would be forgiven for not giving it your full attention But beware the wellprotected and elevated turtleshell-like green. According to longstanding general manager Brendon Timm, it is the shortest par five in the world. From tee box to green there seems to be very little in this hole A simple wedge or punched 9-iron can quickly change to much more when the wind comes up. With trees off to the right of the green, wind direction and seventy make fora difficult read. Tire hole also has an unnerving similarity to the Prince of Wales’ 12th hole at Durban Country Club, with severe dropoffs and…

Christo Lamprecht, Christiaan Maas and Altin van der Merwe added to South Africa's sporting success in October with an outstanding performance at the 33rd World Amateur Team Championships. The GolfRSA National Squad trio combined for rounds of 139,138,138 and 139 at Abu Dhabi Golf Club to close out a seventh-place finish on a 22-under-par 554 and achieved the country's best result since 1982. South Africa have never won the biennial Eisenhower Trophy. Etienne Groenewald, Duncan Lindsay-Smith, David Suddards and Wayne Player came the closest with a runner-up finish behind the United States at Pinehurst No 2 in 1980. Two years later, Derek James partnered Lindsay-Smith, Suddards and Neil James to a sixthplace finish in Switzerland in 1982. From 1958 to 2000, teams of four players from each country competed over…

Here comes the ‘Summer Swing’ and as with so many summers before it, we can expect some big moves from our local talent at the DP World Tour co-sanctioned events. To my surprise I was exempt for the Fortress Invitational recently and so took the opportunity to fly down and compete at Glendower. Following an opening round of ‘what ifs’ which eventually led to a 72 but could have/should have been a 68 (said no golfer before me), I bowed out early, courtesy of a flurry of bogeys halfway through my second round which led to your fourth favourite Zimbabwean pro golfer missing the cut by a couple of shots. Wait a minute… Price, McNulty, De Jonge, Vincent, Charamba, Follett-Smith, Johnstone, Chitengwa, another Vincent, Denis Watson and dot dot dot.…

ANDY CAPOSTAGO COLUMN A CORNER DEDICATED TD GOLF'S TRIERS There comes a time in every golfer's life when the unthinkable has to be thought: ‘I can't do it any more.’ For some, it's because other things are standing in the way; a young family, a job with antisocial hours, or worse, no job at all. For others it is the cruel march of time; your body just says no. The great Henry Longhurst stopped playing because he wasn't enjoying it any more. In Golf Gives Me Up he wrote, ‘A small voice within me said, “You don't have to do this,” and I thought, “No, by God, I don't.” A great wave of relief came over me and on D-Day, 1968, I put the clubs up in the loft with…

LUCA FILIPPI It has been one of those classic seasons for Luca Filippi where the perfection of a process over the past two seasons has culminated in a breakthrough. With eight top-10s – including two victories at the Bain's Whisky Ubunye Championship team tournament and the Blue Label Challenge – everything Filippi has been working to master since he turned professional fell into place perfectly. ‘To be a two-time winner on the Sunshine Tour now feels unbelievable,’ he says with that broad smile, behind which now lies a confidence that can only come from experience. From finishing just inside the top 50 on the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit delivered by The Courier Guy in the 2021-22 season to just missing out on the top 20 last season and, at…

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 (8) Dylan Kayne (Pearl Valley GE) 7 (6) Jordan Wessels (Mooinooi GC) 8 (7) Janko van der Merwe (Magaliesberg CC) 9 (9) Oliver Goldhill (Magaliesparg GC) 10 (10) Simon du Plooy (Krugersdorp GC) 11 (12) Damian Osner (Pinnacle Point GE & Mossel Bay GC) 12 (13) Bryan Newman (Pecanwood G&CC) 13 (11) Keagan Crosbie (Centurion CC) 14 (15) Christiaan Heyman (Bloemfontein GC) 15 (-) Tristan Leonard (Irene CC) 16 (17) Astin Wade Arthur (Mount Edgecombe CC) 17 (14) Fhbrizio de Abreu (Woodhill CC) 18 (IS) Pieter Rossouw (Pearl Valley GE) 19 (-)…

LIV SERIES 2023 What would you do if you won a million rand? OK, let's say a million dollars. No, make that the Lotto. It's a life-changing amount. American golfer Talor Gooch has won the equivalent of the Lotto in his first season on the LIV circuit. And in his case he's hoping to change the lives of other people, not only his own. Gooch is a 32-year-old American. He reached a career-high 31st on the World Golf Ranking in 2021 before crossing over to the ‘other side’, accepting the invitation from LIV to join the Saudi breakaway. In more than seven years on the established PGA Tour and in 123 starts in that environment, he earned $9.3-million. During that time he won once, the 2021 RSM Classic. As a…

The second LIV Golf Series season has finished. Amid all the sideshows and behind-the-scenes bickering as to the official status of the Saudi Arabia-backed league, 14 events took place between February and October. Here we reflect on what unfolded. LIV golfers don't qualify for World Ranking points, which explains their downward sliding positions on the existing table. INDIVIDUAL WINNERS Mayakoba: Charles Howell III Tucson: Danny Lee Orlando: Brooks Koepka Adelaide: Thlor Gooch Singapore: Talor Gooch Tulsa: Dustin Johnson Washington: Harold Varner III Andalucia: Talor Gooch London: Cameron Smith Greenbrier: Bryson DeChambeau Bedminster: Cameron Smith Chicago: Bryson DeChambeau Jeddah: Brooks Koepka TEAM WINNERS Miami: Crushers GC INDIVIDUAL POINTS LIST (based on tournament results) 192 Talor Gooch 170 Cameron Smith 152 Brooks Koepka 149 Bryson DeChambeau 125 Dustin Johnson PLAYERS RELEGATED Jediah…