Ken Borland

The Sunshine Ladies Tour returns to action on Wednesday with the Cape Town Ladies Open at Royal Cape Golf Club, giving South Africa’s women professional golfers some much needed-competitive action, and leading contender Lejan Lewthwaite is hoping to negotiate the next six weeks of action with considerably more ease than when she tried to do her job last year.

Due to Covid, there was only one Sunshine Ladies Tour event last year after the SA Open in March, the Investec Royal Swazi Open in October, for South Africa’s women professionals to earn a living. Lewthwaite, being one of the top women’s golfers in the country and a three-time winner on tour, is at least able to get invitations to play overseas. But even that did not work out as planned.

“I actually caught Covid in June but then I kept testing positive and then negative and then positive again, so it was very stressful and I couldn’t play the number of tournaments I wanted to overseas. There were plenty of false positives in those tests, but the authorities kept thinking that I had recontracted Covid. But my last pro tournament was in November in Spain.

“Since then I’ve just played a bit in Bushveld Tour events and with the men on the IGT Tour. I’ve just been trying to get back into competitive mode again, but it’s been a very difficult year. I’ve had to have lots of patience and just stick to my guns; there has been lots of practise, which does get quite frustrating at times. We’ve been out of proper competition for so long that I can’t wait to get those competitive juices flowing again,” Lewthwaite told The Citizen on Tuesday.

There is no substitute for tournament play and there was a definite air of tremendous excitement at Royal Cape on Tuesday, and not just because of the perfect, still day, for the 60 golfers who played their final practice rounds before teeing off the new season on Wednesday.

There will be four other events on the Sunshine Ladies Tour this season – at Glendower, Gary Player Country Club at Sun City, Soweto Country Club and Fancourt – before the circuit concludes with the Investec SA Women’s Open at Westlake Golf Club from May 13.

“We’re all extremely excited, it’s a great schedule ending with the Investec SA Open in May and a good stretch of tournaments before that on really nice courses. Personally I love all the courses we’ll be playing on and we all feel very blessed to be playing again. So thanks to the Sunshine Tour, the Women’s Professional Golf Association and Investec,” Lewthwaite said.

Daryn Dupavillon is as decent a gentleman and as kind a soul as you could hope to meet off the field, but the Proteas are hoping that on Wednesday on the field he turns into the sort of brutish fast bowler who would squash ants for fun as he has been earmarked for the enforcer role in the decisive third ODI at SuperSport Park.

Bowling coach Charl Langeveldt confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that Dupavillon, who played one ODI against Australia last year as a late replacement, is favoured to come into the side as the replacement for IPL-bound Anrich Nortje, the aggressive paceman who has caused the Pakistan batsmen the most problems, taking seven wickets for 114 runs in his 20 overs.

“To replace Anrich we need an enforcer, someone with good pace and that’s Dupavillon. He must be the enforcer now and do Anrich’s job. Daryn is quick and skiddy and brings something different, he takes wickets. He’s been brilliant in the nets, showing a lot of skill and pace. If we can bowl well in the middle overs and take wickets then hopefully that takes care of the back end,” Langeveldt said.

He added that work is ongoing to hone the skills of the bowlers at the death, but he has been pleased to see improvement in that department.

“Our skill at the back end is better, but we still need a lot of improvement if we’re going to win a world cup. At the end of the day it’s about executing well under pressure, and that comes with playing more games. So it’s a massive loss losing Rabada, Nortje and Ngidi to the IPL, but it’s an opportunity for the guys on the fringes to step up and do well,” Langeveldt said.

The bowling coach also hailed the work done by Andile Phehlukwayo, but he suggested South Africa would not bring in another out-and-out seam bowling all-rounder like Wiaan Mulder, the thinking being that left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj could replace Tabraiz Shamsi and therefore strengthen the lower-order batting a bit.

“It may be hard for Wiaan to get into the team because maybe we will replace Shamsi with Maharaj, who can also do an all-round role for us. Lutho Sipamla could also come in but there has been no final decision on the team yet, we’ll wait until we get to the ground in the morning. But Andile has been an important cog, coming on in pressure situations and he has shown he can close the game for us,” Langeveldt said.

Louis Oosthuizen has a few homes scattered around South Africa and the United States but Augusta is a place where he has always looked pretty comfortable. Since his runner-up finish in 2012, he has only finished outside of the top-30 twice, earning himself $1 733 600 (more than R25 million) and he has finished under-par on his last three visits. South Africa’s top-ranked golfer has only played in five events this year, but he is sure to be up for the occasion at Augusta.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout won the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the SA Open on successive weekends at the end of last year and finished 2020 ranked 34^th in the world, a remarkable jump from 521^st at the end of 2018. The 26-year-old is aiming to base himself on the U.S. PGA Tour and is well on his way to gaining membership, helped by a top-10 finish in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He is already making an impression in America and his straight hitting, superb short game and strong mind are ideally suited to the challenges of Augusta.

Augusta is not an easy place to start a comeback after injury deposits you outside the top-200 in the world rankings, and that’s the reality facing South Africa’s last Masters champion, Charl Schwartzel. The 2011 winner has been through a tough time lately with a wrist injury but, without any real form behind him, he showed the value of experience at Augusta in last year’s November Masters as he finished tied-25^th, his best finish in a major since 2017. Hopefully he can produce something similar this week.

Dylan Frittelli is one of the lesser-known South African stars but you can’t hide his pedigree – World No.68 and the best South African finisher at last year’s Masters, in a tie for fifth. After missing four of his seven cuts on the PGA Tour this year, he bounced back by making the last 16 of the World Matchplay Championships two weeks ago, before he lost to English star Tommy Fleetwood. The 30-year-old is still working for more consistency in his game after changing his Driver and going for more clubhead speed, but he is a dark horse this week.

Those who have played under new Proteas captain Temba Bavuma before say his greatest strength is his man-management and that will be put to the test on Wednesday as the skipper will have five new personalities to deal with in the team for the decisive third ODI against Pakistan at Centurion thanks to the IPL departures.

Quinton de Kock, David Miller, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Lungi Ngidi all played their last games before leaving for the Indian Premier League in the impressive victory at the Wanderers over the weekend and so two new batsmen and a rejigged bowling attack will have to take the field at SuperSport Park for the final match of the ODI series.

Judging by the first two games, South Africa will find it tough to crack a Pakistan outfit that has been highly competent thus far on the Highveld.

“We’re using the next couple of days to rest because back-to-back ODIs are not easy, and there’s the IPL dynamic to deal with as well because of the guys going to India to represent us there. I hope the guys coming in are mentally ready to do it for the team on Wednesday. It’s an opportunity for those other guys to stand up and really make a play for the team,” Bavuma said on Sunday evening after levelling the series at 1-1.

While Janneman Malan is the obvious replacement for De Kock in terms of opening the batting, and will be looking to pick up from where he left off against Australia a year ago, Miller’s place could be taken by either Jon-Jon Smuts, if the Proteas want another sixth-bowler option, or Kyle Verreynne. Heinrich Klaasen is already in the team and can keep wicket, or the talented Cape Cobras youngster can take the gloves.

It is in the bowling department, however, where South Africa will be looking for able replacements most carefully. It is probably fair to say that only Nortje and Rabada have really met expectations in the attack so far, so the bowlers are certainly going to be under pressure in the decider against a Pakistan batting line-up that is confident they can dominate.

Lutho Sipamla and Beuran Hendricks are apparently the most likely bowlers to come into the starting line-up, while Wednesday might offer the opportunity of bringing another all-rounder into the team in Wiaan Mulder.

And with spinner Tabraiz Shamsi having taken one wicket for 111 runs in 17 overs in the series thus far, giving Keshav Maharaj a go as the frontline spinner might be timely too.

Possible Proteas XI for 3^rd ODI: Aiden Markram, Janneman Malan, Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen, Jon-Jon Smuts, Heinrich Klaasen, Wiaan Mulder, Andile Phehlukwayo, Keshav Maharaj, Lutho Sipamla, Beuran Hendricks.