Ken Borland

Dwaine Pretorius has bent the selectors’ ears his way shortly before a world cup on two previous occasions and the 32-year-old all-rounder will be hoping to do it a third time when the Proteas tour Sri Lanka next month.

South Africa has such a great tradition of all-rounders and competition for those places has been stiff, but Pretorius made the cut for both the 2017 Champions Trophy and the 2019 World Cup. The latter tournament was the last time he played an ODI for South Africa and he finished a wretched tournament for the Proteas as their most economical bowler.

And now the T20 World Cup looms in October/November and Pretorius has one chance to stake his claim for that touring party with his performances in Sri Lanka. That he has left it this late is no fault of his own – he has had terrible luck with injury and then caught Covid, which meant his last match for the Proteas was in February in Pakistan.

“The last six months have been the most frustrating of my career ever. First I broke my ribs taking a catch and then the night before flying to the West Indies I tested positive for Covid. Missing that one flight meant I missed two tours, to both the Caribbean and Ireland, so it was a shocker. Covid has brought a lot of new challenges, bubbles aren’t easy and there’s no leeway.

“So it’s been a tough one, but I just have to get over it and deal with it. It’s the third time I’m going through this sort of pressure, it was the same in 2017 and the 2019. I just take it game-to-game and focus on what’s in front of me now. I will try and play my brand of cricket that I believe can add value to the team,” Pretorius told The Citizen on Thursday.

The T20 World Cup is also being played on the subcontinent and Pretorius has bowled cannily in those conditions before and he strikes the ball strongly in the lower middle-order. He is a really valuable white-ball cricketer.

Andile Phehlukwayo has been left out of the T20 squad for Sri Lanka and that leaves Pretorius, Wiaan Mulder and spinner George Linde to fight for probably two all-round places in the XI.

“If I try and do a role that is not me, then the chances of success are so much less. I know I can do the fifth/sixth bowler role and I have the power with the bat to finish innings. I will just try and prove that again and hopefully the selectors will decide I am the type of player they want in the World Cup squad.

“It’s a fight-or-flight situation and you just have to back what makes you you. I can score boundaries from ball one, but it’s risky and I could get out for less than 10 every time and then I will miss the World Cup,” a philosophical Pretorius said.

Opener Janneman Malan has also been left out of the T20 squad and Lungi Ngidi (personal reasons), Quinton de Kock (resting) and David Miller (hamstring injury) will miss the ODIs in Sri Lanka. Fast bowler Junior Dala returns to the Proteas squad, having also last played in Pakistan in February, and he will boost the wicket-taking capability of the attack.

Proteas squads

ODI – Janneman Malan, Aiden Markram, Reeza Hendricks, Temba Bavuma (captain), Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, George Linde, Wiaan Mulder, Andile Phehlukwayo, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi, Junior Dala, Beuran Hendricks, Lizaad Williams.

T20 – Temba Bavuma (captain), Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, George Linde, Wiaan Mulder, Bjorn Fortuin, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi, Beuran Hendricks, Sisanda Magala, Lizaad Williams.

Sport has always been a passion for the Joburg born-and-bred Stacy Bregman, and the life of an international golfer, travelling the world, is proving to be a dream come true for the 32-year-old.

Although she has won a handful of titles on the Sunshine Ladies Tour and is yet to bask in the winner’s circle on the Ladies European Tour, for sheer consistency, one can only admire Bregman’s efforts overseas, where she is certainly keeping the South African flag flying high.

Bregman is currently 12^th on the LET order of merit, having already raked in over half-a-million euro in career earnings, and is heading for another impressive finish and a decent payday at the Women’s Indian Open in New Delhi, where she signed for a 69 on Friday to jump to 16^th on the leaderboard.

She is in the top-10 in the stats for stroke average and greens-in-regulation, both great measures of consistent golf, but for Bregman it is the hard work she has put into her long game that is behind those impressive numbers.

“I’m very happy with today’s round on a really tough course, it’s easy to get big numbers here and yesterday my 76 was down to just one triple-bogey. I’ve been delighted with my year, all the changes I’ve made seem to be paying off because I’m playing very consistent golf since I had a bit of a restructuring to my game.

“I’ve started working with Grant Veenstra, who is making a huge difference to my game, it’s much better now because I’m a lot better off the tee now. Hitting a lot more fairways is really the key to playing better golf and getting more birdies. My putting has also been really good, so it’s all been paying off,” Bregman told The Citizen from the DLF Golf and Country Club on Friday.

Ensuring local women’s golfers have strong enough competition in South Africa to prepare them for overseas tours has previously been a concern, but Bregman feels her time on the Sunshine Tour provided her with a solid footing in Europe.

“The Sunshine Tour is a great stepping stone if you want to compete in Europe. For example the South African Open now has a lot of European golfers coming over for that and a lot of them play in the other tournaments as well. So the level of play is really going up and up as the overseas players strengthen the fields,” Bregman said.

Bregman’s game is also on the up and a maiden Ladies European Tour title could be just around the corner; her second-place finish in the French Open last month certainly showed how close she is to winning. Bregman shot a superb 66 in the final round, but was beaten to glory by two strokes by a tremendous 62 by Sweden’s Caroline Hedwall, a six-time European Tour winner who also plays on the LPGA Tour in America.

“I just need to keep doing what I’m doing, I was pretty close to winning in France and that gave me a huge confidence boost. It showed that it is possible for me to win over here, but I’m just going to try and finish the season as best I can. I can’t predict when I’m going to win, I just have to go through all the learning experiences and keep working hard,” Bregman said.

While the life of a global traveller is appealing to Bregman, her time off the course is devoted to catching up with friends and family and also contributing to rhino conservation.

“I love travelling, I could never spend my life behind a desk, but when you’re on a long stretch like I am now of 10-12 weeks then you do miss home. So off the course I spend my time with friends and family because I don’t see them often.

“As a professional golfer, it’s very difficult to find time for a hobby, but as an African I do love wild animals. Which is why I’ve chosen to support Birdies for Rhinos, they play a very big part in rhino conservation and it’s a very good cause. I really don’t like it when I read what has happened to the rhinos being poached,” Bregman said.

Bregman, together with Ashleigh Buhai (then Simon) and Kelli Shean secured South Africa’s only victory in the history of the World Amateur Team Championships when they triumphed in Stellenbosch in 2006, and she turned pro at the end of that year.

Finishing her amateur career with the world amateur title was probably not that much of a surprise given that Bregman spent her formative years working with Neville Sundelson, one of South Africa’s amateur golfing legends.

“I was good at all sports, whether with a ball or not, and I went quite high in the karate world, getting national junior colours. I played tennis as well and actually loved that more than golf at that stage, but I stopped off at Killarney Country Club one afternoon to join my friend on the driving range and Neville spotted me.

“He’s a good friend and he took me under his wing, and long story short, I chose golf because he said I had the potential to make a profession out of it. He was a great player and he passed on so much of his wisdom to me, and his time and effort made me what I am today,” Bregman said.

As one of the trailblazers for South African women’s golf overseas, Bregman is no doubt having a similarly inspirational effect on local youngsters coming through.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-gauteng/20181020/282759177645616

Jaco Ahlers has earned an average of R445000 in each of the nine years he has been a professional on the Sunshine Tour, but now the 32-year-old from Centurion is guaranteed to earn at least R1.1 million from a single event following his qualification for the Nedbank Golf Challenge starting at Sun City on Wednesday.

Ahlers will fill the 30^th and final place in the elite field following his thrilling weekend playoff victory in the Cape Town Open. Even if he finishes last at the Gary Player Country Club, he will earn $100 000, a massive windfall for someone whose career earnings on the Sunshine Tour are just over R4 million.

Ahlers’ triumph – he beat compatriot Hennie Otto and Englishman Ross McGowan in the playoff – takes the number of South Africans in the Sun City field to seven, with Charl Schwartzel, Dawie van der Walt, Danie van Tonder, Louis Oosthuizen, George Coetzee and Tim Clark also teeing it up.

Fans will be able to enjoy the presence of three former champions in the field: Thomas Bjorn, Martin Kaymer and Lee Westwood, the winners of the last four tournaments dating back to 2010.

Five of the triumphant European Ryder Cup team will be present – the three former champions plus Jamie Donaldson and Stephen Gallacher.

“This is obviously life-changing for me. I turned 32 last week, but right now, I feel about 40 years old. But it’s a happy 40 years because now I’m going to Sun City. What a birthday present! That is a lifelong dream come true,” Ahlers said after his victory at Royal Cape Golf Club.

There would have been eight South Africans in the Nedbank Golf Challenge field but for Ernie Els suffering from a troublesome right hip niggle, which he has decided to rest over the festive season.