Ken Borland

DULLSTROOM (Mpumalanga) – A gentle breeze blew across the valleys and mountains of the Steenkampsberge on Thursday, the day before the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series kicks off for 2024 with the opening event at Highland Gate Golf and Trout Estate, a far cry from the gales that lashed the course on the first day of the pro-am.

The Vodacom Origins of Golf Series is held every year at some of South Africa’s finest golf clubs, grouping amateurs, leading business figures and customers with some of the top players on the Sunshine Tour. Once the pro-am finishes on Thursday, the professional tournament will be held over three rounds from Friday, and the leading contenders are united in their belief that Highland Gate will pose a stern challenge, especially if the wind gets up.

“It’s a great course and hopefully the weather stays good because it is really tough here in the wind,” Neil Schietekat said on Thursday. “The greens are slopey and quick, and if you add strong winds to them then it becomes really tricky.

“There are no giveaway birdies here, which is what I like on a course. You have to map your way around here, you can’t just hit-and-hope and then make an easy birdie. But I feel good about my game, I’ve found a bit of form and you know what they say, ‘be careful of the sleeping dog’,” Schietekat, who is coming off top-10 finishes in his last two Sunshine Tour events, said.

The Vodacom Origins of Golf Series also marks the return to action of one of the great gentlemen of the Sunshine Tour in George Coetzee, who last played competitively in May 2023 at the Italian Open on the DP World Tour.

Coetzee underwent wrist surgery and, on a happier note, became a first-time father in the interim. He was his usual smiling self on the putting green on Thursday, although he acknowledged some daunting golf was ahead of him.

“It’s good to be back and the wrist is rustig [calm]. I’m just going to go out and try and enjoy myself, but if the wind is up again like Wednesday then I could be in for some torture,” Coetzee said.

It is not just the men that will be tackling the Ernie Els designed course that is 6717 metres long and perched 2000m above sea level. Nine Sunshine Ladies Tour golfers are competing for the same prizemoney as part of Vodacom’s push to ensure the country’s leading women golfers enjoy more exposure and opportunity.

Cara Gorlei, the winner of the Jabra Ladies Classic at Glendower in April, and Gabrielle Venter, who claimed the Standard Bank Ladies Open title at Royal Cape Golf Club in March, will lead the women’s charge.

Vodacom have also introduced more incentives for those women who opt to play in the Origins Series, the winner of their own mini-leaderboard qualifying for the Joburg Open and three Access Tour events on the Ladies European Tour.

Danie van Tonder, the winner of the previous event on the Sunshine Tour, the FNB Eswatini Challenge at Nkonyeni Golf Estate, says the Highland Gate layout suits him as well.

“It’s a great course in excellent condition, the greens are very quick and tricky. But I haven’t yet found a course where if I take driver and hit it long, far and straight, I will not do well,” Van Tonder said.

Two-time Olympic gold medallist Caster Semenya has called for the International Olympic Committee to show more consistency and have a uniform policy for competitors who are under gender scrutiny.

The 33-year-old Semenya, who won the 800m in the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games, is not competing in the Paris Olympics because World Athletics insists she takes medicines to lower her testosterone levels, a consequence of her differences of sex development (DSD) condition.

Semenya refuses to undergo the treatments, which are mandatory in order to compete, and has been locked in legal battles with World Athletics since 2018.

The Paris Olympics have been rocked over a gender controversy in boxing, with two competitors, Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, having their eligibility for the women’s tournament being questioned. Both are guaranteed a medal, having advanced to the semi-finals in their respective weight divisions.

In Semenya’s homeland of South Africa, social media has been awash with posts questioning why the boxers are allowed to compete, especially in a combat sport, while Semenya is effectively banned. The IOC has backed the two boxers, casting doubts on the veracity of the International Boxing Association’s gender eligibility tests that found they had XY chromosomes.

The IBA is no longer recognised by the IOC, who are running the boxing events in Paris themselves.

Semenya herself has sympathy for Khelif’s plight, the 25-year-old welterweight having borne the brunt of the storm.

“Imane is a great boxer and people always criticise when someone is doing well, people always talk then. When she wasn’t winning, then everyone was quiet.

“But the IOC’s policy and constitution should not contradict each other. Sport is for all people and the constitution says no to discrimination. But the minute they allowed women to be disgraced, it confuses us.

“If sport is for all, then why does the big governing body allow this sort of thing to happen? They should stand their ground and lead by example. It’s about quality leadership that safeguards, protects and respects women,” Semenya told sportsboom.com in an exclusive interview in Pretoria.

“What happened at the Olympics now is not what happened in my space. Each organisation has its own policy, boxing have their own and athletics has its own.

“It’s not about what I want, but about principles of life. My views are not about me because I have ventured more into coaching now, I stopped running seriously in 2022. I have kids now and I want to spend more time at home.”

World Athletics, then known as the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), initially restricted their new rules on testosterone levels to just three track events – the 400m, 800m and 1500m.

Semenya initially switched to the 200m and 5000m races, but was never a real contender at those distances, failing to make the Olympic qualifying standards.

Last weekend she ran her first competitive race in more than a year, in the Tshwane (Pretoria) event of the Spar Women’s Grand Prix 10km Series, finishing 10^th in 37:13.

A beaming, jovial Semenya clearly enjoyed the experience.

“It was real nice and I did it for all the women, to make sure I inspire and show them that anything is possible. It was to celebrate women in sport and all women.

“I like to challenge myself, I was feeling outside my comfort zone and I thought I would end up walking, but I just kept on going. I’m very happy about my run and finishing in the top-10. Maybe when I’m 34 I must run the Comrades Marathon [an annual 88km ultramarathon held in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa],” Semenya laughed.

KHOLWANE (Eswatini) – Golf can be a cruel mistress and is even tougher when a course comprises two nines that are totally different in style, but Jason Roets has handled the challenges of the Nkonyeni Lodge and Golf Estate with aplomb as he goes into the final round of the FNB Eswatini Challenge with a one-stroke lead.

Roets fired a marvellous bogey-free six-under-par 66 in Friday’s second round to go to 11-under-par for the tournament. The Dainfern golfer dropped just one shot in the first round, sharing the lead with Combrinck Smit and Stephen Ferreira, so it is fair to say he has mastered the 18-hole combination of nine holes on the Bushveld Golf Course and nine on the Golden Eagle Links.

Roets started his round on Friday on the 10^th, the Bushveld nine, and went out in four-under, and then finished his round wonderfully with birdies on the seventh and ninth holes, both par-fours, as he took his score to six-under over the first two days on the front nine links.

“It was a very nice day, any time you go bogey-free you know you’ve played well,” Roets said. “I like both nines, it’s a really unique challenge to have a whole new set-up after halfway.

“On seven I hit a good drive, hit my second to 25 feet and made a really nice putt. On the short ninth, I took driver and was slightly left of the green, but I hit a great shot to about two feet,” Roets said.

The 31-year-old Roets is one stroke clear of former SA Open winner Danie van Tonder, who showed a return to something approaching his best form with a 66 on Friday, his lowest round this season. He had one bogey on each nine, but eagled the par-five eighth and collected six birdies.

Other contenders for the title on Saturday are Keenan Davidse (68) and Neil Schietekat (69) on seven-under, while Lyle Rowe fired a 67 to be five strokes back on six-under-par.

Smit could only shoot level-par 72 on Friday and is in the tie for sixth on five-under, while Ferreira had three bogeys on the front nine and a seven on the par-five 15^th in a 74 that leaves him eight shots behind.

Roets has been on the Sunshine Tour since 2020/21 and is without a victory after 68 tournaments. Other than contending strongly on the Blue Label Development Tour, the former University of North Texas golfer also has three top-10 finishes on the Sunshine Tour proper. But this season has been his best, as he currently sits 32^nd on the Order of Merit delivered by The Courier Guy.

“I’ve played really nicely this year, just a couple of rounds have let me down. So it’s nice to capitalise on good golf. Obviously I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about my first win, but I’m just going to try hard to stay in the moment in the final round, take it shot-for-shot with 100% commitment,” Roets said.

KHOLWANE (Eswatini) – Combrinck Smit focused on keeping the ball in play and also not making mistakes, so it was little surprise that he dropped just one stroke on the opening day of the FNB Eswatini Challenge at Nkonyeni Lodge & Golf Estate on Thursday, shooting a 67 to join a three-way tie for the lead.

Jason Roets also dropped just one shot and had an eagle on the par-five eighth, to also post five-under-par, while Stephen Ferreira was outstanding in not having a single bogey in the first round, the only golfer to achieve this on Thursday, to also finish with 67.

Smit’s only blemish came on the par-three 11^th, his second hole, but he had birdies on the 10^th, 12^th, 13^th and 15^th holes going out, picking up further strokes on the third and eighth holes.

“I’m very pleased, I kept the ball in play all the time, hit a lot of good shots and tried not to make mistakes. So it was a stress-free round really,” Smit said afterwards. “This course is an awesome mix of a links on the one side and then a typical bushveld course on the other, and I really enjoy it, it suits me well.

“My game has steadily been getting a little better over the last four or five weeks. I’m experimenting with a couple of things, but it pretty much comes down to getting the basics right. I’d fallen a bit behind on some things and you pick up bad habits. The main thing is just to enjoy it out there, rather than thinking about posting anything in particular,” Smit said.

The Eshowe Hills golfer has no fear when it comes to mixing things up on the course, having the creative shot-making ability required to adapt to the Nkonyeni terrain, especially on the links side. Smit finished tied-sixth here two years ago.

“I think I’ve done well here in the past because I have a lot of options off the tee. I can hit long-irons and get them running, or I can play a high draw or play low shots. I don’t always have to use driver if I’m not confident with the Big Dog,” Smit said.

The 40-year-old Neil Schietekat was in the tie for second place on four-under-par with Daniel van Tonder and Ethan Smith, with the two pivotal moments in his round of 68 coming around the turn. He eagled the short 274m par-four ninth, but then made double-bogey on the par-four 10^th.