Ken Borland

GQEBERHA, Eastern Cape – The wind that has gusted through Humewood Golf Cub this week was joined by soaking rain on Wednesday to make for pretty miserable conditions in the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series Pro-Am, but at least one golfer – Jacquin Hess – was able to apply the old Monty Python maxim and always look on the bright side.

While the locker-room was full of mutters about the unrelenting wind and the rain just making everything wet and uncomfortable, Hess may have been nodding sympathetically, but inside he is quite happy for the weather to turn foul for when the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series fourth leg tees off at Humewood on Thursday.

“The weather forecast is not looking good and everyone is complaining about it, but I’m actually smiling inside,” Hess said. “I prefer the conditions to be tough, it opens the field up, and most of my best finishes have been on the tough tracks. The more the wind blows, the better for me. Coming from Robertson, there’s always a three-club wind there, and I actually went home to practise a bit.

“This course is always good, I love the place and I was in the mix the last time I was here, so I have a good vibe. You have to play different shots here, keep it low and under the wind, it’s been a two-to-three club wind so far, but I’m comfy hitting my seven-iron from 130. So I’m in a good space mentally, it’s going to be difficult for everyone and sometimes you don’t realise that,” Hess said.

The 30-year-old has missed his last two cuts, at the Vodacom Origins of Golf Mount Edgecombe leg and the Sunshine Tor Invitational, but he is optimistic about the next few weeks on tour because tough courses are hosting the events and he feels like he is slamming it straight and just waiting to capitalise score-wise.

“My game is turning in the right direction and I’ve just got to give myself opportunities, take it one shot at a time. The next five weeks should suit my game because we have tournaments here at Humewood and places like the Wild Coast and Sun City, where I normally play well. You need to hit it straight and low at these places, which I’m doing, and I putted really well in the Pro-Am, even in the difficult wind.

“I saw playing with Alex Haindli when he won at Sishen that you just need to keep the ball in play and par is good. You need to have that sort of even temperament, like cricketers Jacques Kallis or Hashim Amla. You just need to go with the conditions. You need to be the calmest guy on the course,” Hess said.

Judging by the former SA Students golfer’s strong showing in the Pro-Am, Hess has no need to get anxious about what he will face over the next three days at Humewood.

GQEBERHA, Eastern Cape – Christiaan Basson has won before in the strong winds of the Eastern Cape in the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series, claiming the St Francis Links title in 2015, and the 39-year-old is hoping this week’s event at Humewood Golf Club will be the one in which he “makes it count” and finally throws off the momentum-stopping effects of the Covid pandemic on his career.

Basson had enjoyed his best finish since 2011 on the Sunshine Tour order of merit, inside the top-20 in 2019/20 before Covid hit, and he hasn’t quite been able to recapture the same consistency in the last two seasons. He finished 38^th in 2020/21 and is currently 43^rd in the standings for this season.

The arrival of twins for Basson and his wife last year lessened the blow of his career being disrupted, but he is now itching to get back into contention and try and claim his fifth Sunshine Tour title.

“Yes, Covid definitely disrupted my golf, but it came at a good time for me to help my wife because we had twins just before the virus arrived. So they were in nappies through Covid and it was nice to have that family time together. But in terms of golf it put a bit of a stop on my progress and I haven’t really done well after Covid.

“I was sort of on a high when it hit and since then I haven’t had much opportunity, there haven’t been many big events with all the postponements. I’m positive about my game, it’s trending in the right direction, but I’m also keen to make one or two tournaments really count now,” Basson said.

Born in Strand, raised in Cape Town and now living there as a member of Metropolitan Golf Club, Basson is obviously at home in the strong winds that are expected to buffet the Humewood seaside links with increasing ferocity when the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series tees off on Thursday. But on Tuesday he said even he needed some time to adapt.

“The way I’ve played lately, I wouldn’t say I’m going in full of a lot of confidence, but I’m happy with these conditions and I think it suits my game. It’s been a while since I’ve played in such a strong wind though. You know how to do things in conditions like this, but you still need to get sharp beforehand. You can’t really practise for wind when there is no wind.

“But I like the conditions and the challenge. You’ve just got to be solid around here and keep the big mistakes off your card. You have to accept that you’re going to make one or two bogeys, especially into the wind, and mentally I’ll even swap the par-fours and par-fives around if the long hole is downwind and the par-four is into the wind. You can hardly get there in two sometimes when the par-four is into the wind,” Basson said.

It is a problem though that Basson is well-equipped to solve. He has the knowledge of winning at the St Francis Bay Links 100km west of Humewood and, now in his 15^th season on the Sunshine Tour, he has plenty of experience of coastal conditions.

GQEBERHA, Eastern Cape – Vodacom’s 17-year title sponsorship of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series makes them one of the Sunshine Tour’s most loyal partners, giving South African professionals playing opportunities through the winter, but the telecommunications company has always also been focused on the higher calling of helping develop people in general and supporting charitable initiatives in the communities they visit.

This week the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series is in Gqeberha for the two-day Pro-Am and then the professional tournament at Humewood Golf Club, and Tshego Malinga, the executive head of department for the Customer Business Unit Eastern Region, is focused on making sure the event touches many peoples’ lives.

“We have the ability to make sure profit meets purpose and I am a firm believer that the two are never mutually exclusive. At the centre of everything we do at Vodacom is the desire to enable our customers to live out their purpose. We do that by connecting them in an environment in which they can express their passions and aspirations.

“But it’s also important for Vodacom to be part of the development of South Africa as a whole, and sport plays a very important part in the development of the nation. We want to help people explore their talent and hopefully some of them can go on to become international icons. We also want to be helpful to the community and the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series has really assisted in the funding of many charities,” Malinga says.

This week’s Vodacom Origins of Golf Series Pro-Am at Humewood will be raising funds for the Maro Foundation, which was started in 2014 by Pamela Mabini.

A social and gender activist from Kwazakhele, Mabini used her corporate connections to distribute food, blankets, clothes, shoes and hygiene products to the homeless. Since then she has opened two facilities in Johannesburg for the rehoming of mentally handicapped, disabled or HIV-positive children who have been abandoned by their families,

“We have the ability to really help this NGO that is also helping in the fight against gender-based violence, so that’s our big focus for this tournament. We want to help those who have less access to things we might take for granted. We need a consciousness of the environment we operate in, we can’t just be focused on our share price.

“It is super special for us to be able to host this event and help the Maro Foundation in these times of Covid and all the hesitation around that. It’s a tricky balance making sure people are safe but also bringing them together. We really want the show to go on, so we can keep helping people. It’s an honour for Vodacom to be able to do that,” Malinga says.

Although not a golfer herself, Malinga is also acutely aware of the history of Humewood Golf Club, one of South Africa’s top courses and the host of many major tournaments.

“Vodacom, Humewood and the Eastern Cape are all very iconic brands, so this event is the amalgamation of very strong South African brands. We all have a responsibility to society and Humewood has a strong heritage in both Eastern Cape and Port Elizabeth society. It has credibility because of its heritage and this collection of brands people love makes it easier to galvanise them around their shared history and love for the province and city,” Malinga says.

The Pro-Am Dinner on the eve of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series has already raised R25 000 for the Maro Foundation, with the fundraising efforts continuing all week.

The personal touch is something all businesses should strive for and building contacts between people is one of the key elements of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Pro-Am Series.

That the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series has built up considerable networks and lives up to its mantra of being Always Connected has been borne out this year by the arrival of another company famous for their customer experience and engagement skills – Momentum Metropolitan – as one of the series partners.

This week’s event at Humewood Golf Club will be the fourth with Momentum as partners and Carel Bosman, the financial services company’s Head of Sponsorships and Events, has been delighted with how well their involvement is going.

“We only recently entered the Vodacom Origins of Golf fold and it really is the ideal sporting platform, we’re already starting to engage and build connectivity with so many people. The series is pretty unique in that you have amateurs playing with the professionals and it has been incredibly positive for us being involved from the start of the season.

“We’ve been sending different internal stakeholders from our various business units to play in the events, and it has been a very positive experience for us as a corporate. We will certainly be looking to do more as Vodacom and Commissioner Thomas Abt and the Sunshine Tour are putting together some stunning properties. The Vodacom Origins of Golf Series has been going for so long, since 2004, and we feel privileged to be involved,” Bosman said.

Momentum’s investment in cricket, especially the women’s game, has been one of the success stories of the South African sports industry space, and Bosman had nothing but praise for Vodacom’s tremendous achievements with the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series.

“The Vodacom Origins of Golf Series has been a success for so long that you simply have to acknowledge what Vodacom have done. It’s been wonderful to meet their team at a regional level and sport really needs sponsors to do these sort of things. And Vodacom have obviously seen value in their strategy to stay involved for so long. What they have done has been incredible and hats off to them, long may it continue!” Bosman said.