Ken Borland

Kathu (Northern Cape) – There were nearly 35 excited children from the Kuruman chapter of the South African Golf Development Board at the Sishen Golf Club driving range on Thursday, taking part in the Vodacom Origins of Golf development clinic and receiving coaching on the basics of the game from Sunshine Tour professionals, but one little guy stood out because he has been teeing it up around the country in junior golf with some success.

Delrico Agterdam is just 10 years old but he already plays off a seven and he is ranked the number two junior in the Northern Cape. For the last two years, he has received his provincial colours for the U13 team.

Considering how much younger he is than his fellow competitors, it is tantalising to think how good Agterdam will be once he fills out a bit.

Annemarie Rabie is the SAGDB coach for the Kuruman area and she was at Sishen Golf Club on Thursday. She says there is little else Agterdam is interested in other than golf.

“Delrico thinks about golf all the time. He eats and sleeps for the game and he really wants to become a professional golfer when he is big. He started playing when he was really small and he puts in a lot of work. The great thing about him is that I can give him a lesson today and tomorrow he will be practising that exact thing and remembering what I taught him,” Rabie says.

Agterdam’s father works at Kuruman Country Club and Rabie first saw him there, just playing around with a club and a ball. The talent was obvious.

Giving disadvantaged golfers the opportunity and exposure to express and fulfil that talent is what the Vodacom Origins of Golf development clinics are all about. But while Agterdam will be aiming to write his name in the annals of the game, the clinics also help engender a love for golf amongst all the other kids. Vodacom wants them to know that there is a place for them in this great game, whether that be as a player, fan, coach or administrator.

“These clinics are really excellent and it was so amazing to see how much the kids enjoyed it. They were like little sponges and they all had a million stories to tell on the 45km drive back to Kuruman. It’s just amazing what Vodacom do, if there weren’t these clinics then these kids would never have been coached by Sunshine Tour pros, or have met them or have played on a course like Sishen Golf Club.

“And when we got to Kuruman Country Club, Delrico climbed out of the car and said he wanted to go and play a few holes, he was so inspired!” Rabie laughed.

Kathu (Northern Cape) – When Martin Vorster tees it up in the Vodacom Origins of Golf Sishen event from Friday, there will be a sense of it being a comeback moment for the 22-year-old from Fancourt.

That’s because it will be Vorster’s first individual event in which he feels properly prepared following the hip injury that kept him out of action for three months.

Vorster did play in the Bain’s Whisky Ubunye Championship last week and finished in a tie for fifth, but that was a team event, the former top-ranked amateur playing with Jovan Rebula.

But the fact that he played so well in just his second Sunshine Tour event since May means he goes into the second Vodacom Origins of Golf tournament of the season in high spirits. It also helps that he loves the Sishen Golf Club course; they do say that if you ever play this astonishing gem set in a lush camelthorn forest on the edge of the Kalahari Desert, you’ll want to come back.

“It’s going to be very nice to get going again,” Vorster said after the first day of the popular pro-am that always precedes the Vodacom Origins of Golf tournaments. “I returned to the Sunshine Tour three weeks ago at the Gary and Vivienne Player Challenge at Kyalami Country Club, but I had just started hitting balls and it was more about testing whether my body was ready. Everything went well on that front, but my game was not ready yet and I didn’t play very well.

“But then I had a good week’s practise and it was a blessing to then play in a team event, which was less stressful. There were still a few rusty shots, but it’s just great to be back competing again. This is an unbelievable course and I always look forward to playing here,” Vorster said.

It was the eagle eye and intimate knowledge of the kinetics of the golf swing of coach Doug Wood that saved Vorster from a potentially more serious hip injury.

“I started working with Doug at the end of 2022 and he said my then-swing could cause problems for my hip. So I had to change it and we worked on it for a long time and made so much progress. But it was just too late and I tore my labrum.

“Thankfully it was not a complete tear. But it was not ideal and I had to rest for six weeks before starting rehab. I still have two or three weeks of rehab to go, but I am so thankful to be back on tour,” Vorster said.

After a difficult 2023/24 season in which he finished 83^rd on the Order of Merit delivered by The Courier Guy, Vorster made a fine start to the current campaign with top-10 finishes in his first two events – the FBC Zim Open and the KitKat Cash & Carry Pro-Am. But then his hip gave way.

“It was very frustrating and it happened just when my game was heading the right way after last season. It was my first time in Europe, playing on the Challenge Tour, and I struggled more with the off-course stuff, the travelling, the language barriers – everything was new.

“I also just played too much golf. I only had 10 weeks off last season, but it was a great experience. But now I’m more focused on the Sunshine Tour and doing well here will open more doors, it allows you to skip certain stages of the DP World Tour qualifying school.

“My first goal now is to be in the top-10 on the order of merit because then I can get back in a re-rank category that qualifies me for the DP World Tour co-sanctioned events,” Vorster said.

Vorster will be up against experienced campaigners like Danie van Tonder and Jean Hugo, who have both won twice this season, at Sishen, as well as the in-form duo of Yurav Premlall and Jacques Blaauw, both flying high on the Order of Merit delivered by The Courier Guy.

JOHANNESBURG – Danie van Tonder’s ability to ignore all the bumf that comes with the pressure of winning and simply trust his attacking instincts once again paid off as he eagled the 18^th hole to put himself in a playoff which he then won in the Gary & Vivienne Player Challenge at Kyalami Country Club on Friday.

Van Tonder, who started the final round four strokes off the lead, first of all chipped in to eagle the 480m par-five closing hole in regulation play to complete a brilliant six-under-par 66 and leap to 14-under-par for the tournament.

The 33-year-old then had to wait to see if his clubhouse lead withstood the challenge of the last three two-balls. The eagle proved crucial as both Yurav Premlall and Martin Rohwer shot four-under-par 68s to also finish on 14-under, sending the trio into a sudden death-playoff on the 18th.

Premlall was eliminated on the second play-off hole as he made par and Van Tonder and Rohwer both birdied the par-five. After replaying the last hole three times, they then took on the par-three 17^th, which Van Tonder had bogeyed in regulation play. Another excellent chip shot, this time out of a bunker, set up victory for the 10^th time on the Sunshine Tour.

“I was frustrated when I stood on the 18^th tee in regulation play because I was unlucky twice on 17. First I had a bad bounce with my tee-shot that went over the green, but I hit a great chip, only for the par-putt to horseshoe out. I knew it was a big putt,” Van Tonder said.

“I also knew I had to make eagle on the last to have a chance, so we took driver and tried to get as close as possible to the water. I had a five-iron in, which finished just right of the green. I said ‘Take the pin out!’ because I knew there had to be space for the ball, and then I chipped in.

“We then went back to 17 in the playoff and Martin and I were both in the greenside bunker. He hit a good shot to about three metres, but I was able to put it within a foot and make the par,” Van Tonder said matter-of-factly about two extraordinary moments of self-belief.

The Serengeti Estate golfer has earned himself a hunky wad of cash in the last month, having also won the FNB Eswatini Challenge on August 3, and the 2021 SA Open champion (winning at Gary Player Country Club) said he was pleased his hard work on his game since returning from Europe is paying off.

“I’ve been playing well for a while, so it’s nice to be able to pluck the fruit from the tree, so to speak. They call me the Silent Assassin and the camera is never on me back in the field, but the game is there,” Van Tonder said.

Premlall had birdied the 18^th to get into the playoff, but fell just short of his maiden Sunshine Tour title, while Rohwer had moved to 14-under with a birdie on the par-five 13^th, but he just could not grab another opportunity to move ahead.

Ruan Conradie (66), Christian Kriek (68) and Altin van der Merwe (69) finished tied for fourth on 11-under-par, while overnight leader Jonathan Broomhead made too many mistakes in the final round, suffering five bogeys in a 74 that left him on 10-under, tied for seventh with Malcolm Mitchell (68), Lyle Rowe (69), Christiaan Burke (71) and Jean Hugo (71).

JOHANNESBURG – Jonathan Broomhead says it is crucial to get yourself into good positions at Kyalami Country Club and that is precisely what the 23-year-old did on Thursday as he earned himself a two-stroke lead going into the final round of the Gary & Vivienne Player Challenge.

Broomhead fired a brilliant seven-under-par 65 in Thursday’s second round, leaving him at 12-under for the tournament. That round was made even more impressive by the fact that he did not get off to a good start at all, making bogey at the first two holes, both par-fours.

“I got off to a bad start thanks to a couple of bad swings that put me in bad positions and led to ‘simple’ bogeys,” Broomhead explained. “But having done nicely in the first round and seeing a couple of guys shooting nine-under today, there was an eight-under and another seven-under too, I knew there were quite a few birdies out there.

“So it was just a case of having a mental shift after a shaky start when I missed a couple of fairways. I drove the ball very nicely after that, which put me in position to attack the flags and score. I hit the ball well and made some putts.”

With Andrew Williamson the other golfer to shoot 65 on Thursday, lifting him into second place on 10-under, tied with Martin Rohwer (67) and Yurav Premlall, who owned the 64 to continue his great recent form, Broomhead is clear about what he needs to do in the final round to get his second Sunshine Tour title after his impressive victory in the Tour Championship delivered by The Courier Guy in April.

“I’ve kept going with the way I ended off last season by winning the Tour Champs, week-in, week-out I’m just trying to give myself opportunities and I’ve done that with five top-10 finishes this season.

“It’s going to be exciting tomorrow and I’ll just try to play the course as it is. It’s going to be colder, so that makes it tricky. But if you can hit the ball well off the tee and put yourself in good positions then there are a lot of birdies out there because you’ll get a lot of run with the course being so dry. It’s not such a long layout [6631m] and if the bounces go your way then you’ll have a lot of short clubs into the greens,” Broomhead said.

In these conditions, two shots is a handy lead but not enough to feel completely confident of winning. Apart from the trio in second, with Rohwer having won three times on tour and Premlall having finished second and third twice each this season, there is plenty of winning pedigree near the top of the leaderboard.

Jean Hugo, the owner of 20 Sunshine Tour titles after his victory at Highland Gate two weeks ago, shot a 66 on Thursday to join Christiaan Burke (68) in fifth place on nine-under-par, just three behind Broomhead.

Altin van der Merwe posted a fabulous nine-under 63 on Thursday to join nine-time Sunshine Tour winner Danie van Tonder (66), the champion in Eswatini three weeks ago, and the in-form Rookie of the Year standings leader Kyle de Beer (67) on eight-under, along with Jacques P. de Villiers (69) and Ruan de Smidt (69).

Lyle Rowe was the other golfer to shoot a wonderful 63, lifting him to seven-under-par, five off the lead, along with Christian Kriek (68), Rhys West (67) and Pierre Pellegrin (68).