Five toughest tee shots at Southbroom Golf Club – with Derek James

SOUTHBROOM Golf Club will play host to the KwaZulu-Natal Amateur golf tournament from August 23 to 27.

Many of the country’s top players will tee it up, in the hope of victory, and selection for higher honours.

Southbroom Golf Club professional Derek James, a former Tour player and now top teaching pro, can’t wait for the tournament to start.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing what the guys can shoot here. I suspect there’ll be some low numbers, but let’s see.”

Southbroom may be a short course, but if the wind blows, then some of the holes can be especially difficult.

Here’s a selection of Derek’s five tee shots you simply have to get right:

1. The tee shot on the par four 3rd if the south-westerly wind is blowing. There’s bush left and houses right. Being a semi-blind shot doesn’t help either. You can take an iron for safety but it doesn’t really help. You simply have to pure one on this hole. Disaster lurks. In the medal you can make a 7 in no time and stand to miss out on the top 32. Gus Bonini, a long time member at Southbroom, said his hands used to start sweating when he was about an hour out of Johannesburg, on his way to Southbroom for club champs. He couldn’t understand why, then realised it was because he had started thinking about the 3rd hole, or more specifically the tee shot.

2. The tee shot on the par five 6th hole, no matter what the wind is doing. Get it right and eagle is on the cards, but with white stakes and houses on the left and right, plus a hugely sloping fairway, landing it on the closely mown stuff is a good achievement. Superb matchplay hole.

3. The tee shot on the par three 8th hole, made hugely difficult if the south-westerly is around. There’s water short of the green and to the left, but very much in play. Palm trees on the left and right, and a bunker tucked behind a slope on the green. The tee doesn’t face towards the hole, so alignment and club selection are vital. A great hole, but it can bite. The 14th is also a difficult target to hit, but less stressful as there’s bale out short. You can roll it down there and limit the damage.

4. Tee shot on the par five 17th. This is Derek’s personal nemesis where he kept snap-hooking it. “But I’m over that as I no longer hook it!” he said. In all seriousness, the tee shot on 17 could prove to be a defining one for whoever is crowned champion, if the match should go that far. It’s a fantastic tee shot, and as it’s a par five the guys want to hit it out there, but with admiralty reserve bush down the left and the bunkers on the right, it’s unexpectedly tight. Then there’s the matter of the ‘walking tree’, the one that blew down in a storm years ago and has crept closer to the fairway ever since. It has a habit of trapping any shot with a touch too much draw, especially into the wind.

5. The tee shot on the par four 1st hole is subtly difficult. Tug it left and you’re under those trees, and push it right and you face dropping out of the dams. For an opening hole, it’s hardly a ‘loosener’.

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