The brotherhood of the travelling Easterns Nomads

Meet the Easterns Nomads – golfers who do not play the sport just for the love of the game.

There is an extremely generous charitable side to this club and a strong determination by the members to grow the sport of golf and spread the spirit of sporting goodwill throughout the country.

Recently, the Easterns Nomads hosted an inter-provincial triangular tournament at Ebotse Links, The Highveld Trophy, played between their members and members of the Northerns and Gauteng Nomads.

Speaking to the City Times on the day, immediate past captain Warren Brits explained how the Easterns Nomads, and Nomads overall, go about their business.

“Fundamentally, Nomads has three tiers,” he explained.

“Firstly, to foster relationships through meeting monthly to play golf, and camaraderie are a big part of that.

“Secondly, we are about the furtherance of golf (FOG) where we put a lot of money into golf development in the country.

“We cover everything, from junior to women’s to senior to disabled golf, by helping courses in the Eastern Gauteng region with various projects.

“We raise funds for that by doing Golfarama duty when we do live-scoring for the Sunshine Tour and at their co-sanctioned events.

“We receive funds through our Nationals sponsors and manage the distribution to FOG though the national FOG director.”

In total, R33-million has been donated by all the Nomads over the past 55 years.

“The third tier is our charity leg, which works under the name of the “Andrew Mentis Endowment Fund”, which we use to raise funds for those less fortunate than ourselves,” Brits added.

He stressed that all charity work done is in the form of tangible assets.

“No cash ever exchanges hands,” he said.

“We’ll get the job done and we’ll finance projects.

“At the end of the day it is all about longevity and sustainability.”

Brits said that they also participate in a number of inter-provincial Nomads tournaments throughout the year, including the Nomads South Africa National Tournament, which is one of the largest amateur golf events in the country.

He added that the Easterns Nomads has almost 195 members, who are predominantly East Rand-based.

“Of that total, about 150 of the members are active golfers.

“We try to support our local courses by playing once a month at a different course within the Ekurhuleni Golf Union’s region,” he said.

Brits explained that, over the last three years, Easterns Nomads alone has raised about R1-m for the Andrew Mentis Endowment Fund.

“We are also a very strong travelling club and probably have the strongest contingent of members of the South African group at all away

tours.

“We are a strong, financially sound club and pretty much a well-oiled machine.”

Nomads essentially works like a business, with their financial statements audited on a yearly basis.

“We are run by a management committee that is appointed by the captain on a yearly basis.

“The committee meets once a month at Benoni Country Club, and deals with everything that has to do with the operation of Easterns Nomads.”

In the past three years, Easterns Nomads has supported Benoni’s Oliver’s House and SanParks Honorary Rangers East Rand.

Easterns Nomads is not a stand-alone club and all members must be affiliated to a club.

In order to join the club, a golfer must be invited as a visitor and, from there, must decide whether or not they want to play or not.

After filling out an application form to become an official member, they become a prospective member (a member in circulation).

Prospective members are placed in a strict waiting period, during which they are required to play six monthly games and to attend an away tour.

During that time, Nomads members have a right to object to prospective members for any reason.

After approval, a membership induction takes place.

Vic Langkilde is the current captain of the club; the current vice-captain is Mike Fick and the junior vice-captain is Mark Ablett.

The captains move up positions on a progression cycle, on a yearly basis, each term.

“We are also extremely privileged to have the current national chairman, Vic Hall of Nomads South Africa, as an Easterns member,” Brits said.

Brits added that none of their work would be possible without the support of their national and local sponsors and thanked them for their support.

For more information on the club, visit www.easternsnomads.co.za.

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