for quality writing

Ken Borland



5 South Africans in the Masters … all but one of them going in the wrong direction 0

Posted on May 09, 2022 by Ken

Five South Africans are going to be teeing it up at the Masters tournament at Augusta from Thursday, but the bad news is that all but one of them have been going in the wrong direction in the world rankings and will be entering the first, and arguably most prestigious, Major of the year without good form behind them.

Erik van Rooyen is the South African golfer enjoying the best year thus far, playing with reasonable consistency to move from 65th in the rankings at the start of the year to 62nd at present, with five top-30 finishes in eight tournaments. His best performance came in the Dubai Desert Classic when he tied for fourth, so he at least carries some momentum into the tournament and is considered a dark horse in some quarters, even with that weird facial hair.

Louis Oosthuizen is always the South African golfer who attracts the most attention, especially given his stellar record in Majors, but this week he will be having more eyes than ever in his general direction because he is going to be playing in the same three-ball as Tiger Woods, who is making a dramatic return to golf following his serious car accident 14 months ago in which he suffered serious leg injuries.

Oosthuizen is typically under-the-radar leading into Majors, and has slipped from 13th to 15th in the world, with two top-30 finishes in only five events. But South Africa’s highest-ranked golfer had an outstanding 2021 in the Majors, finishing tied-third, second, tied-second and tied-26th in the Masters. He was the runner-up at Augusta in 2012, famously won by Bubba Watson.

Charl Schwartzel is another former champion who is going to be playing this week, but the 2011 winner has dropped to 169th in the world rankings and has missed the cut in his last six tournaments. He did, however, finish third in the 2017 Masters.

Garrick Higgo is another South African who is hoping to overcome a run of bad form as he has missed his last three cuts. In fact he has not finished in the top-20 since his breakthrough win at the Palmetto Championship last year.

The fifth South African, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, is at least going to the Masters with some reasonable form behind him, finishing in the top-30 four times in nine events this year. He made the cut in both his previous starts at Augusta.

Scottie Scheffler is the new No.1 golfer in the world and the hottest competitor coming in, but he will be challenged strongly in the tipping stakes by Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka.

Cameron Smith and Xander Schauffele are dark horses in the 90-stroing field, while one can never discount Dustin Johnson.

SA golfers continued to make their mark internationally – 8 in top-100 0

Posted on January 20, 2022 by Ken

South African golfers continued to make their mark internationally in 2021 with eight of them finishing the year in the top-100 of the world rankings.

Louis Oosthuizen was once again in the forefront of the local effort, finishing in the top-three of three of the four Majors. Having been the runner-up at both the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open, the 39-year-old then finished tied-third at the Open. It left him ranked 10th in the world.

This continued his incredible run at the Majors, where he now has 11 top-10 finishes, including his victory at the 2010 Open Championship at St Andrew’s. Far from being downcast at being pipped to the post so often, Oosthuizen instead said his record inspires him because it proves he can still compete in the Majors.

South Africa’s next highest ranked golfer is Christiaan Bezuidenhout (48th) and he also enjoyed a good year in the Majors, making the cut in all four of them, an inspirational performance on its own.

There were good years too for Garrick Higgo (59th), who enjoyed a phenomenal stretch in which he won three times in eight weeks, including at the Palmetto Championships in just his second start on the U.S. PGA Tour. The fact that the youngster’s good friend, Gary Player, gave him a motivational phone call on the morning of the final round created much excitement in America.

Branden Grace staged a good revival in 2021, winning the Puerto Rico Open and finishing the year back in the top-100 at 66th, while Dean Burmester enjoyed an even more astonishing rise to reach 67th. He was 182nd at the end of last year, but his consistency in Europe – winning the Tenerife Open and having six other top-10 finishes as he finished 18th in the Race to Dubai – saw him claim his career-best ranking. He also won South Africa’s PGA Championship at the St Francis Links in November.

Shaun Norris (76th) proved his mettle on the Japanese Tour, winning twice and finishing fourth on their points rankings.

Of the home-based golfers, Daniel van Tonder enjoyed the most success. Having dominated locally in 2020, he gained his European Tour card by winning the Kenya Classic and did well enough overseas to retain his privileges by finishing 75th on their order of merit. He made the cut in the two majors he played in, the Open and the PGA Championship, and completed another very pleasing year for the 30-year-old by winning the South African Open at Sun City.

Grace back at most beloved Major, hoping to lead SA challenge 0

Posted on May 28, 2021 by Ken

Branden Grace is back at his most beloved Major, reunited with his coach and back in the top 100 of the world rankings as he looks to lead the 11-strong South African challenge at the PGA Championship starting at the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island on Thursday.

Grace has the best history in the tournament of that record South African contingent vying for the famous Wanamaker Trophy, having finished third in 2015 and tied-fourth the following year. Gary Player was the last South African to win the PGA Championship, way back in 1972.

The 32-year-old Grace’s career had been in the doldrums a bit and he lost his father to Covid at the beginning of the year. But Grace rebounded to win the Puerto Rico Open on the U.S. PGA Tour and has made the cut in four of his five events since then, climbing to No.92 in the world rankings, having ended 2020 in 126th place. He also has his coach Peter Berman with him in South Carolina, and expressed his happiness on social media that they will be able to work together for the first time since last year.

In the golf movie Tin Cup, protagonist Roy McAvoy talks of a course being like a “river full of all manner of disaster, you know, piranhas, alligators, eddies, currents” and the Ocean Course, which was also the venue for the 2012 PGA Championship, has been described as the most difficult layout in recent Major championship history. Measuring nearly 7900 yards, it also features strong coastal winds and cruel slopes.

Hopefully the potential for trauma won’t mar the debut experience of Major golf for South Africans Garrick Higgo, in red-hot form after his two European Tour wins in the Canary Islands, and Danie van Tonder, who has been given an invite after his breakthrough European Tour victory in Kenya.

Louis Oosthuizen is the highest-ranked South African in the field at 31st in the world rankings, followed by No.41 Christiaan Bezuidenhout. Dylan Frittelli is another South African who regularly competes on the U.S. PGA Tour and is also inside the top-100, while veteran Charl Schwartzel rose 48 places to No.109 after his tied-third finish in last weekend’s Byron Nelson Classic.

Brandon Stone has been doing well on the European Tour lately, while George Coetzee and Erik van Rooyen both enjoyed their best Major showings at the PGA Championship. Dean Burmester, who also won during the European Tour’s Canary Islands swing, is making his PGA Championship debut, having played in two U.S. Opens previously.

Boks on the right track, Meyer & airport fans agree 0

Posted on January 04, 2013 by Ken

 

Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer says his team’s rise from number four to number two in the world rankings tells him they are on the right track, but it was the smattering of applause his squad received when they arrived at O.R. Tambo International Airport on Monday that was perhaps an even bigger advisory that the public, his sternest critics, are pleased with his efforts.

It’s hard to remember when the Springboks were last applauded in the arrivals hall at O.R. Tambo, but it must have been 2009 when they returned from Hamilton with the Tri-Nations trophy. Generally, the media gathered for interviews have been the only ones to show much interest, the general public keeping an awkward distance, much like how the employee who got drunk and took all his clothes off at the office Christmas party is treated.

But South Africa’s unbeaten tour of Great Britain and Ireland, the first perfect end-of-year trip since 2008, has enabled Meyer to lift his record in his first year in charge to seven wins, three losses and two draws from 12 Tests. The former Blue Bulls coach has admitted that for him, too, it has been a steep learning curve.

“Our three goals were to remain unbeaten, which has not been done for quite some time on the end-of-year tour, secure the number two ranking and, perhaps most importantly, make our supporters proud. So it was really great to see the support here at the airport.

“It’s been a tough year, we’ve lost three out of 12 Tests, but the great thing is we started at number four on the world rankings and now we’re second. So I’m very happy, especially considering we lost a lot of guys through injury, and we can only grow from here,” Meyer said.

While the likes of Eben Etzebeth, Willem Alberts, Adriaan Strauss, Francois Louw, Marcell Coetzee, Duane Vermeulen and Pat Lambie have stolen the limelight, captain Jean de Villiers has been the unsung hero of the team, alongside ever-present tighthead prop Jannie du Plessis.

De Villiers was initially appointed as captain for just the three June Tests against England, which was quickly extended to the whole year and now, after an often torrid season, Meyer advised that he was unlikely to change captain next year in the light of the calm, intelligent leadership shown by De Villiers.

“Jean has been awesome. He’s one of three players to have started every game this year and he’s also been a great ambassador for the country. In the last three games, he was our main ball-carrier and he gained good ground for us. There’s no reason he shouldn’t be captain again next year,” Meyer said.

The two areas about which Meyer has been most strongly criticised have been the attacking play of his side and his transformation record.

While the wet conditions overseas served to undermine much of their attacking ambition, there were hints against England at Twickenham last weekend that, with Lambie at flyhalf and Juan de Jongh at outside centre, the backline could develop into more of a threat.

The transformation issue is one that all Springbok coaches – save for Peter de Villiers – have had to face, but it is disingenuous to single out Meyer for criticism.

Nine players of colour, including five black Africans, were in the touring squad which is as good a record as any of his predecessors, including De Villiers. With Siya Kolisi out injured, it is difficult to imagine other black players who can feel unfairly treated by not being selected.

Even criticism that these players did not get game time on the tour is unfounded, because there were a heap of white players who also spent the three weeks carrying tackle bags. It’s the nature of sport that not everyone can get a run and even someone like Elton Jantjies, whose form has begun to taper off after a great start to the Currie Cup campaign, was overlooked because Lambie deserved a fair chance to stake his claim at flyhalf.

Meyer’s focus in 2013 should be on wedding better backline attacking play to the formidable pack he is building and the outstanding defence shown on tour. He will also want the team to perform more consistently: they have produced their best for the full 80 minutes perhaps only once this year (against Australia in Pretoria) and the need for a ruthless, killer edge was shown in the last two matches when they allowed both Scotland and England back into contention in Tests that looked done and dusted.

But these lapses of concentration that afflicted the team are in stark contrast to the mental strength they showed in winning all three Tests in Europe despite being in high-pressure situations (even if they were of their own making).

“A lot of guys hadn’t been on an end-of-year tour before and a lot of great players have lost over there. We’d lost the previous Test against Scotland and we’d only won one of the last three in Ireland. I always say there are only two types of rugby: winning rugby and losing rugby. And we won three out of three, so I’ll take that.

“There is still lots of room for improvement, but that will come with experience. It takes a lot of mental effort to grind out wins like that. But we made life hard for ourselves by conceding 17 penalties a game on tour, compared to six per game back at home, so that’s unacceptable and has to change,” Meyer said.

http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-11-27-meyers-mojo-growing-stronger

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • Thought of the Day

    1 John 2:5 – “But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him.”

    James 2:14 – “What good is it if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?”.

    Love without action is useless.

    If you love God unreservedly, you will offer your best to him and be willing to serve him wherever he wishes to use you.

    Love has to manifest itself practically.

    “Love requires uplifting and inspirational deeds.

    “How genuine can your love for God truly be if you are aware of a serious need and do nothing to alleviate it?”- Solly Ozrovech, A Shelter From The Storm



↑ Top