By Mrs Furyk
IN keeping with the plan to upgrade the Amanzimtoti Golf Club (AGC) clubhouse and course, club captain Nico Vogel has spent almost all his daylight hours during the past two weeks working on the water reticulation system.
Pipes have been dug up, water diverted from the borehole to the south side of the river via a new aerial pipe across the 10th hole bridge, and the course and fairway areas around the mouths of the ‘sprinkler’ heads are a rich brown in colour, testament to the huge amount of mud and muck that has already been flushed through and out of the piping system.
The greens to which the water is now available are showing immense recovery, and hopefully within the next week all the pipes will be cleared and connected to the system, and the entire golf course will be revelling in the joys of borehole watering. Thanks go to all those who have assisted Nico in resolving the club’s water reticulation problems.
This coming Sunday sees the first round of the 2016 men’s league take place, with the B side taking on Ethekwini at Toti, while the Allerton boys are away to Central Durban.
The B side is made up of Jacque Nel, Gerry Lewis, Jason van Rensburg, Robert Roux, Robert Mott, Mike Igesund, Jason Moriarty and Murray Dalton. This is a fairly young team but all as keen as can be, and hopefully the Toti faithful will turn out in their droves to give the team some good support on Sunday.
The club’s Allerton team comprises Peter Tiearney (captain), Ronnie Nair, Eugene Mbambo, Peter Dalton, Ian Bender, Mike Halse, Tommy McNaughton and Bobby Milne. A highly skilled team, all wily as old foxes, and hopefully they will open their league campaign with a really good win.
On Saturday the women played the first of their in-house trophy events for 2016, namely the Basil Smuts Trophy, which is a hi-low drawn pairing playing a betterball format. Winners on the day were the team of Jacqui Porrill and Estelle Binnekade on a superb 48 points, with Ina de Boer and Gill Symons one point adrift on 47. Jacqui picked up nearest the pin on the fourth hole, with Gill showing immense skill in winning the weekly beer raffle.
The men played a fourball betterball bonus bogey on Saturday. Mike Halse and Hu Turnbull beat Johan Roux and Boet Millan on +12 by way of a count out, Tommy McNaughton and Peter Tiearney came third place on +11, and fourth spot went to Jimmy Corr and Mike Murphy on +9. Rob Symons was nearest the pin on the 4th, Bruce Whiting took nearest the pin on the 15th, and Mike Halse picked up the jackpot to round off a good day out.
The Wednesday IPS competition was contested by 28 players, with Martin Tait beating Rob Kruger and taking top spot on a 38 point count out, and Mike Flack coming in third on 36 points, also on a count out.
On Friday 24 players turned out to compete in the nine hole sundowner competition, with Nigel Johnston taking the podium with 21 points, followed by Attie Nortjie on 19.
That’s it for this week. The club looks forward to seeing everyone on the course on Saturday, and more importantly, out on the fairways supporting the league team on Sunday.
A reminder, Toti welcomes all visitors to the area to either play a game of golf or hone their skills on the driving range. Contact the pro shop on 031-902-4144 for more information.
