KZN spots up for grabs
A look at the national rankings reveals that KZN golfers are doing nicely.
At the moment this is what their rankings looks like, including number of events: 2 Mitchell (17), 3 Saulez (17), 6 Woollam (10), 11 Mansfield (15), 14 Mayo (13), 18 McKay (20), 31 Coetzee (15), 43 Mwandla (21), 63 Broomhead (10), 70 Sole (2).
Scullard is ranked first in the mid-amateur rankings, opting to play these events to get a green blazer.
The top eight in the KZN rankings as of now are: 1 Mitchell, 2 Jason Broomhead, 3 Mwandla, 4 Gilliver, 5 Sole, 6 Jono Broomhead, 7 Graham Dickinson. 8 Dave Watson.
It’s pretty obvious picking from the latter ranking is not an option.
The national ranking gives a better idea, but is also not all-telling as some players don’t travel as much for one reason or another.
Then there are things like past experience and foursomes combinations to consider.
Most sports writers like trying to predict teams
ahead of time.
Here’s a team I believe will win: Mitchell and Mansfield; Saulez and Mayo; McKay and Scullard. Plus two of Sole, Mwandla, Broomhead and Gilliver.
That top six pretty much selects itself and I fancy those foursomes combinations.
Sole has captained for quite some time and has years of under-the-gun pressure experience. But he’s on the wrong side of 40 now and has admitted that if there are youngsters playing better, he’d be happy to see them push through.
However, he’s still capable of low rounds, especially in the wind on tight courses.
Gilliver is most improved player in the province (aside from unavailable Woollam) and has won four tournaments on the local circuit since last year.
He also produced some exciting matchplay golf towards the end of the recent SACD tournament, where he ended the week playing number one.
He hits it a country mile and plays league foursomes with Sole.
Mwandla has been a steady campaigner for a few years now and it seems incredible that he might be fighting for his place in the team. But that’s sport. He’s shown top commitment to his game, having played the most national events (21) while Gilliver, for example, has only played a few and isn’t even on the national rankings yet.
Broomhead is also a consistent, neat player who has a calm on-course demeanour.
He’ll need some good results to gain reselection.
There’s no place to hide at an IPT so all the players, from one to eight, need to produce.
It’ll be interesting to see who can do what between now and selection time.