Stone has moved to the sea … but certainly not to retire
Kevin Stone grew up in what is now called Gauteng but the popular 55-year-old golfer has now moved to the sea.
Certainly not to retire, but to become director of golf at the Mount Edgecombe Country Club Estate, which is hosting the Sunshine Tour’s prestigious Vodacom Origins of Golf Series this week.
It’s a challenging job looking after the two premier championship courses and all the members, plus this week’s tournament was sprung on Mount Edgecombe at late notice due to unforeseen circumstances with the original host, Durban Country Club.
But Stone still reckons he would rather be in his current job than playing golf.
“I stopped playing professional golf really in 1998 when I went into the club industry and just played part-time. And, honestly, I’m not that keen to race out there and play now. My wife Desiree is the CEO of both the Mount Edgecombe estate and country club, and initially I came and helped out when Micky Hough resigned. But then they asked me to stay and starting in December last year, I am now the director of golf.
“Normally we have six-to-nine months to prepare for a tournament, but when Desiree called me into her office last Friday I thought I was going to get fired! Instead she asked me if we can host the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series. Fortunately I like to keep the course to tour standard week in, week out, so the members can enjoy that sort of quality. We will maybe just speed up the greens a bit, they are normally between 9 and 9.5 and we’ll probably go up to 10.5 for the tournament. We expect some rain to slow it up as well, but if the wind gets up then the greens will be very tricky,” Stone said on Tuesday.
Dominated by the Mount Edgecombe Lake, the aptly-named Lakes Course is 24 years old, while the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series is being played on the 5885-metre The Woods, which dates back to 1935, although it was redesigned in 1992.
“The Woods has been inter-seeded with bent grass and the greens are getting better every year, it’s in good nick at the moment. The Lakes is also a very good course, I actually prefer it a bit. It’s a lot more challenging, tree-lined with lots of water. It’s a very old-school type of course.
“But on The Woods, the pros are going to need to drive it straight. On the par-fives they can get on easily in two because they all just bang it 300 yards these days. Watching them makes me feel like I’ve never played this course before … it’s nice to be young,” Stone laughed.