Southbroom sneak in for league victory
Three of the five teams were still in it on the final day.
Southbroom Golf Club have won the Southern KZN Handicap Golf League for 2024 in dramatic fashion.
But it certainly wasn’t easy, and they needed other results to go their way, which, in the end, they did.
Southbroom arrived at Selborne last Sunday needing to beat Selborne on their home course and then hope Umdoni beat Margate.
The Port Shepstone team had a bye and could only sit at home and watch and wait.
Somehow, the Southbroom players held their nerve, and the scoresheet shows how close it was.
In fact, it was the first time Southbroom have beaten Selborne at Selborne – talk about a time to do it!
Southbroom beat Selborne 7-5, and Umdoni beat Margate by the same margin.
In the Southbroom-Selborne match, nine out of the 12 games went down the last hole.
In the greensomes, Simon Shusha and Werner Duggan lost to Myles Poole and Julius Dlamini 1-down.
Grantie Richards and Jan Nqoko beat Andrew Sharpe and Tom Lillyman 1-up.
Captain Grant Richards and Cyprian Xolo halved with Adrian van Vuuren and Tony Outram.
Cameron Olivant and Braden Pratt beat Darryl Herman and Brendan Delacy 1-up.
In the singles, Shusha beat Dlamini 4/3, and Duggan beat Poole 2/1 to stretch the lead to 4,5-1,5.
Richards junior lost 2-down to Sharpe, but Nqoko beat Lillyman 3/2 to see score go to 5,5-2,5.
However, Richards senior – probably worrying too much about his charges – lost 7/6 to Outram and then Xolo lost to 1-down to Van Vuuren.
Suddenly, it was game on, with the score 5,5-4,5 and Southbroom needing to win at least 7-5.
Pratt, still a junior and on debut, pulled off the win of his young career, beating Delacy 1-up.
Olivant, only 15 but becoming a team ‘senior’, three-putted the last to half his match, but it wouldn’t matter.
Margate hurt their chances by going down 3-1 in the greensomes and then lost four of the opening five singles matches.
Despite a rampant finish from their top three, it was too little too late.
In fact, it was an odd game in a way, with huge winning margins on both sides. Only one game went to the last hole.
There were three dog licences handed out on the day and two more that were pretty close.
All in all, it was a fantastic league year, with only half a match point separating Southbroom and Port Shepstone in the final tally.
LOG
Southbroom 2,5 (25,5)
Port Shepstone 2,5 (25)
Margate 2 (25)
Umdoni 2 (23)
Selborne 1 (21,5)
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