Return to golf proved to be good move
DESPITE having concentrated seriously on golf for only the last 18 months, Uitenhage teenager Tiaan van der Bank is producing the sorts of results which make him one of Eastern Province’s rising young stars in the game.
Since becoming more interested in the game in September 2012, the 13-year-old Grade 7 Muir pupil has represented the EP under-13 and U15 sides, and is currently a member of the EP side which competes in the U17 provincial league.
Van der Bank, who was at College Hill before moving to Muir in Grade 4, was introduced to the game by his father when he was four years old. But his interests drifted to cricket for a few years before he came back to golf just under two years ago and is now fully focused on the sport.
He started to become hooked at the age of 11 after playing in one of the Eastern Province Junior Golf games at Uitenhage.
Currently playing off a six handicap, his best round is 72, but at the tender age of 13 he has the achieved the feat most other golfers merely dream about – a hole-in-one.
In August last year, using a four-iron on the 175-metre par-three seventh hole at the Uitenhage Golf Club, Van der Bank achieved the perfect fluke and said it was good feeling.
“It was a very exciting moment,” Van der Bank said. “I was playing with my friend Frederick Coetzee, and he said ‘that was great’.”
Last year, Van der Bank won the EP U13 Order of Merit title and excelled in a number of tournaments for the age-group team. This year he is delighted to have made the EP U15 team.
In a recent U15 tournament at the Fish River Sun, he came second in the Eastern Province team and showed his skill over a demanding course by shooting rounds of 85, 82 and 75.
He is coached by PEGC pro Graeme Whale and practises regularly at the Uitenhage Golf Club. He is inspired by golfing stars Tiger Woods and Adam Scott, but says his father is his golfing role model.