Here come the Men in Black
The tournament attracts players from around the province.
IT has been a long, long time coming, but Northern KZN finally won the KwaZulu-Natal Country Districts Interzone tournament again.
Played at Newcastle Golf Club last weekend, the host sub-union took full advantage of home territory and completely dominated affairs, winning the strokeplay easily and all their matchplay games fairly comfortably.
In the early and mid 90s, Northern KZN were the most feared team. But that hasn’t been the case for 20 years. “The last time we won was in 1996, so it’s nice to finally do it again,” said captain Corne van Deventer.
He was pretty pleased with the effort from his team, even if they did lose two key players just before the event, in Combrink Smit and Philip Boardman.
“I think it’s fair to say it was a convincing win,” he said afterwards.
They dressed the part, wearing black shirts, never mind that temperatures soared above the 30 degree Celsius mark.
Northern’s team comprised Van Deventer, Sipho Hlongwa, Jan ‘Bok’ Venter, James Bonthuyzen, Mason Meyer, Johan Pienaar, Chris Khanyile and Phumlani Mbhele.
The battle for second place was more intense, with Southern KZN just edging out Midlands. It was a much-improved effort for them after a shocker at Empangeni last year.
East Griqualand had one of their better finishes, clinching fourth place.
Zululand were without many of their big guns and placed fifth. The only thing that stopped them from the ignominy of the Wooden Spoon was that North Coast didn’t send a team.
On day 1, Altaaf Bux of Port Shepstone Country Club won the KZN Country Districts Champs on scores of 74 and 71.
A chip-in on the tough par three 16th helped his cause and he added another birdie on the 17th before finishing with a par to seal it.
“You could see this look come across his face – he suddenly realised he could still win it,” said his playing partner, Sean Baker, speaking about the chip-in.
Smit was second on 72 and 74, followed by Van Deventer, on 75 and 72.
Shane Douglas (Zimbali) and Kalvin Parsons (Gowrie Farm) were tied for fourth on 148.
Baker, meanwhile, has now played in 21 consecutive Interzone tournaments representing East Griqualand, which has to be some sort of a record.
“I moved to Kokstad from Pietermaritzburg in 1995 and thought I would only be there for two years or so,” he laughed.
Brian Dougherty (Umhlali) and Douglas Sima (Margate) have probably played more, but not unbroken.
Interzone will be played at Kokstad next year.
The team to play in the SACD tournament at ERPM in Ekurhuleni from May 13 to 17 is as follows: Corne van Deventer (Vryheid – captain), Sean Baker (Kokstad), Marc Bormann (Kokstad), Shane Douglas (Zimbali), Sipho Hlongwa (Ladysmith), Walter Malevu (Kilbarchan), Steve Phytides (Zimbali) and Combrink Smit (Vryheid). Manager is Wynand de Swardt.
KZNGU president Neil Champion felt the team was a good one. “We were unlucky last year but I believe we can pull it off this year,” he said.
