SOUTHERN KwaZulu-Natal’s golfers had a tough old time of it during last weekend’s KwaZulu-Natal Country Districts Interzone tournament held at San Lameer Country Club.
The defending champions had hoped the home course advantage would play in their favour, but it didn’t and they were outgunned by a very determined Ilembe Golf Federation team (formerly North Coast) and Northern KZN.
In the end Ilembe won the trophy with Northerns second and Southern KZN third.
Midlands were fourth, followed by Southern KZN’s B side, and then East Griqualand. Unfortunately Zululand did not send a team.
There were some highlights, with Sean Baker (Margate CC) and Graham Fabricius (Port Shepstone CC) making the team to play in the South African Country Districts Interprovincial at San Lameer from May 15 to 19.
Sean finished third in the Friday strokeplay, while Graham had the most matchplay wins for the hosts, four out of five.
The weather dished up a treat, with wind on Friday, pelting rain all day Saturday, and then brilliant sunshine on Sunday.
There were some amusing moments too, the first provided by Dean Goldhill.
He managed to lock his car keys in the boot of his BMW 740i. Then left his wife to sort it out while he headed for the first tee.
His opening drive was a shocker, drilled low and a little left, pinning an unsuspecting impala midships.
“I think I killed Bambi,” he said. In truth the buck had not much more than its pride damaged.
There were other weird moments.
Robert Mavundla was penalised two shots for playing the wrong ball on Friday afternoon.
The next morning his car broke down and he was late for his tee off time, arriving when his opponents were on the third hole.
Warren van Heerden also barely made his tee off time, and hadn’t yet been attired in the correct kit.
“Thought he was wearing his pyjamas when he rocked up,” was one chirp.
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED LAST YEAR: Full house for Southern KZN
… AND THE YEAR BEFORE: Here come the Men in Black
Jason Gilliver, on debut, almost teed off with the B team, but quickly discovered he was on the wrong tee box and scampered hurriedly down to number 10.
Matt Sutherland discovered that some of the ‘old veterans’ can still play a bit, halving his match with EG’s Bruce Eaglestone, who he later to his shock discovered was a nine handicap!
Mikhail van Brakel rounded off a tough Sunday by arriving home only to discover he had forgotten his putter at the B & B.
The two Southern KZN teams were: A – Gavin Sole, Sean Baker, Graham Fabricius, Jason Gilliver, Robert Mavundla, Matthew Sutherland, Warren van Heerden and Francois Botha; B team – Dean Goldhill, Mikhail van Brakel, Elvis Khawula, Douglas Sima, Jarrod van Wyk, Gary Purtell, Derick Zolyomi and Jan Roos.
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