Strydom doesn’t disappoint at KZN Open Stroke Play
TRISTEN Strydom lived up to his billing as the country’s top-ranked amateur when he won the KwaZulu-Natal Open Stroke Play at Port Shepstone CC last weekend.
The Serengeti Golf Club player produced rounds of 69, 65, 66 and 70 to win by five from Royal Cape’s Sean Bradley, who finished with a 66.
Margate’s Jan McDermott, who finished further down the field, pretty much summed up what a lot of players felt after seeing the quality of the scoring.
“How’s that -18? I won’t leave my day job,” he quipped.
Jason Smith of Irene CC was third, seven shots adrift of Strydom, followed one shot further behind by Matthew Spacey of Dainfern CC.
The best of the KZN players was Siyanda Mwandla of Mount Edgecombe CC. He had rounds of 74, 70, 73 and 69 to claim a tie for 11th place.
His two clubmates,
Luke Mayo and Aneurin Gounden, were the next best of the KZN players, finishing in 18th and 20th place respectively.
Mwandla felt he had “played nicely”, and was fairly pleased with his results. He has been playing national events, but took a short break recently to fine-tune his game.
“I had been making cuts but not finishing anywhere, so decided to have a break and spend some time working with my coach, Don Gammon,” he said.
He has also adjusted his approach to practising.
“I’m not just hitting balls randomly on the range any more, you know, without a purpose. Now I will put, say, 10 balls down and try and hit a specific target,” he said.
The results are starting to show. He came ninth at the recent Prince’s Grant Invitational, won by Andrew van der Knaap of Centurion Country Club, and then almost cracked the top 10 at Port Shepstone.
“The confidence is growing. I know there are people who believe in me, so I have been working hard,” he said.
Results of KZN players: 11 Siyanda Mwandla -2; 18 Luke Mayo +1; 20 Aneurin Gounden +3; 23 Corne van Deventer +4; 26 Louis Albertse +5, Ruben Coetzer +5; 30 Matt Saulez +6; 41 Gareth Atkinson +9, Walter Malevu +9, Malcolm Mitchell +9, Reece van Straaten +9; 48 Graham Dickinson +12, Clayton Mansfield +12; 53 Jan McDermott +14, Liam McIlroy +14; 61 Marc Bormann +17; 66 Samuel Gouma +20, Patrick Mavundla +20; 68 Jaques Swartz +21; 69 Steven du Plessis +27.
The KZN Country Districts team heads to ERPM in Ekurhuleni soon for the SACD to be played from May 18 to 22.
Corne van Deventer captains the team, which comprises Combrinck Smit, Steve Phytides, Shane Douglas, Marc Bormann, Sean Baker, Sipho Hlongwa and Walter Malevu.
Wynand de Swardt is the manager.
The team is in the B section and will be wanting to change that this year.
Next up on the calendar is league on May 24. In premier league, Cotswold host Umhlali, Durban CC “2” play their A team at Beachwood, Southern KZN travel to Mount Edgecombe, and Royal Durban host Toti. Kloof have a bye.
Empangeni CC will host the Zululand Open on May 31.
Michael Vlismas AS A relative newcomer to the game of golf, musician Elvis Blue is relishing being involved with one of local golf ’s largest charity tournaments – the Sanlam Cancer Challenge.
Blue is among a growing number of celebrities and sports stars who are throwing their support behind the annual Sanlam Cancer Challenge, which sees more than 35 000 amateur golfers compete in hundreds of club competitions around South Africa to raise funds for the Cancer Association of South Africa (Cansa).
It’s a partnership that goes back to 1993, and is one of the longest-running sports sponsorships in the country.
And Blue says he’s proud to be a part of it.
“I met the Sanlam guys a few years ago, and to be part of something like this is actually a big honour. To be able to play golf, and in some way also make a difference, is wonderful.”
The award-winning musician took up golf about two years ago.
“My wife is a wonderful woman. About two years ago she bought me a set of golf clubs and a club membership. That’s got to be a wonderful woman. Although I have wondered if maybe she just wanted me out of the house…”
Last year, he realised the dream of many amateur golfers when he played at the Gary Player Country Club for the first time during the Sanlam Cancer Challenge national final.
Awesome
“It was a pretty big moment for me. From a young age I would watch the big names playing that course, so to be able to play it myself for the first time was an awesome experience.”
This year’s tournament is already under way with the nationwide club competitions. The winners of these will progress to the provincial competitions, and the top 100 golfers will qualify to attend the national final at Gary Player Country Club and Lost City Golf Club at Sun City, on October 19 and 20.
The theme for this year’s tournament is “Early Detection”, as Cansa hopes to drive home the message that early detection is a major factor in overcoming cancer.
The more than R3.3 million that the Sanlam Cancer Challenge raised last year adds significantly to Cansa’s efforts to fight the disease and invest money in research and technology.
Part of this is the funding for the eight Mobile Health Units that travel around the country to assist with screenings for early detection.
The funds have contributed towards new technological advancements such as the SureTouch device, which works in conjunction with traditional Mammograms to assist with early detection of breast cancer. And the FotoFinder Dermascope machine has also greatly enhanced early screening for skin cancer.
Registration is now open at www.sanlamcancerchallenge.co.za.
For more information go to www.sanlamcancerchallenge.co.za