Ken Borland

Local golf fans angry at the lack of a South African winner in the Nedbank Golf Challenge found a new hope to shout for on Saturday as Aldrich Potgieter stormed to the top of the leaderboard ahead of Sunday’s final round at Sun City.

The last South African to win the country’s most-watched tournament was Branden Grace in 2017. Potgieter is a young man on a meteoric rise though, and the 20-year-fired a blistering six-under-par 66 on Saturday to claim a three-stroke lead on seven-under-par.

As impressive as his four birdies and an eagle on the famous par-five 14^th hole – now shorn of the love-grass however – were, it was even more admirable that Potgieter went around the daunting Gary Player Country Club course bogey-free on another day of furnace-like heat.

It just continues a phenomenal last few months for Potgieter, who was born in Mossel Bay and attended the Louis Oosthuizen Academy before emigrating to Australia and enjoying amateur wins over there.

He returned to South Africa in 2022 and won The Amateur Championship at Royal Lytham and St Anne’s, gaining him places in the Open Championship, the Masters and the U.S. Open, where he made the cut. Potgieter turned pro in June 2023 and this year he became the youngest ever winner on the Korn Ferry Tour (U.S. PGA Tour second tier) when he won the Bahamas Classic. He also shot a 59 at the Astara Golf Championship in Bogota, making him the youngest player to shoot that in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event.

Potgieter finished high enough in the Korn Ferry Tour order of merit to get his PGA Tour card for this season.

Little wonder then that Gary Player and Sun International felt he was worth an invite to the Nedbank Golf Challenge. The sizeable crowd following him and roaring their support further validated the decision.

“I was loving the crowd, it was pretty awesome to have them following me,” Potgieter said. “I’ve never played in front of a crowd like this before and it would be a dream come true to win tomorrow. A lot of friends and family are on their way to watch me and it was great to get the invite and then be able to play good golf.

“I made a putter switch from the mallet to the blade on the second day because I was leaving a lot of putts short. But I capitalised on my opportunities today, there was a lot of pressure, but it was good pressure.

“The Nedbank Golf Challenge has always been such a big thing for my Dad, for the last 20 years he’s been talking about it. So I’m excited to put on a show in the final round and it’s going to be great to have all that support. There’s one day left and hopefully then I’ll be standing on 18 holding up the trophy,” Potgieter said.

The energy levels of our DP World Lions men’s team are obviously high and they have had the benefit of a full week’s preparation ahead of their first outing in the defence of their CSA 4-Day Series title as they host the Momentum Multiply Titans from Tuesday.

Our Pride’s last outing saw them clinch the CSA T20 Challenge title in the most emphatic of fashion, hammeriing the self-same Titans in the final, having beaten their Gauteng derby rivals earlier in the week in Qualifier 1.

The Titans will now return to the DP World Wanderers Stadium bullring and Russell Domingo, #ThePrideOfJozi head coach, has warned that their neighbours will be hurting and keen for revenge.

But most of the DP World Lions squad named for the four-day opener played a major role in last season’s triumph, as well as being key members of the squad that won the CSA T20 Challenge last month, so there is plenty of confidence in our Pride’s camp.

“We played a warm-up game and we’ve had net sessions in the last week, so it has been good prep. There’s a good vibe in the squad and the energy levels are high. If you asked us what was the trophy we most want to win, it would be the red-ball one.

“It would have been a nightmare week if we had lost the final, but the Titans will bring a really good team and they will be hurting. There are never any easy games against them, but we are all up for the challenge,” Domingo said.

Connor Esterhuizen, who finished as the DP World Lions’ leading run-scorer in the triumphant T20 campaign, will again be wearing the wicketkeeper’s gloves with Wandile Makwetu still recovering from his broken finger.

The seasoned Josh Richards and the exciting young Mohammed Manack are set to open the batting, with the class of captain Dominic Hendricks and Zubayr Hamza to follow. Mitchell van Buuren will be the mainstay of the middle-order, while Delano Potgieter, the hero of last season’s four-day final, fills the all-rounder berth.

The exciting trio of Lutho Sipamla, whose demolition job on the Titans in the T20 final earned him a recall to the Proteas squad, Tshepo Moreki and Codi Yusuf will look after the pace bowling department, while Bjorn Fortuin and Junaid Dawood, the joint leading wicket-taker in the T20 competition, are the spin bowlers in the squad.

Khaya Fakude is the new face in the team, the DP World Lions Academy batsman having impressed the coaching staff with his ability and talent. The KES and University of Johannesburg representative hails from Kanyamazane near Nelspruit.

When former Knights pace bowler Dillon du Preez took over as the interim coach of the Proteas women’s team, he felt like he had a mountain to climb. Now that he has scaled that peak by leading the side to the T20 World Cup final, the flats, much like the terrain around his Free State home, surely now lie ahead?

But Du Preez himself is not sure he wants to continue as the head coach. This is despite the obvious rapport he has built up with the team – starting in September 2020 as an assistant – and his fellow management team at the World Cup.

Replacing Hilton Moreeng, who stepped down as head coach in May after 11 years at the helm, has proven problematic for Cricket South Africa. Finding a suitable candidate with a Level IV coaching certificate (which Du Preez has) has been the stumbling block.

The 42-year-old Du Preez wonders whether he has enough experience for such a key role, having only been coaching for two tears when Moreeng hand-picked him as his bowling consultant in 2020. Firm friends off the field from their playing days, they led South Africa to the T20 World Cup final on home soil in 2023, losing to Australia.

“It’s been difficult for me,” Du Preez told Rapport when the team returned to a heroines’ welcome in Johannesburg this week. “Doing things like handling the media has been fairly new to me and I do wonder whether I’m the right person to continue. The cornerstones are there, you have to learn how to get past semi-finals and we have done that, and now we are one step away from winning finals.

“But we are on our way. The one thing I question though is do the team need more from their head coach? I will be taking a few days off now and then I will sit down with Enoch Nkwe [director of cricket] and we will discuss everything,” Du Preez said.

He also praised his two assistants, Paul Adams (bowling) and Baakier Abrahams (batting), for their valuable input that has certainly added value to the team.

“They have been very valuable, you can see that in the huddle, which Paul runs. He brings such focus and calmness, he’s been around so when he speaks, people listen.

“And Baakier has been a coach for a while. He has got buy-in from the players and they all know their scoring areas now,” Du Preez said.

Even though the Proteas fell at the final hurdle, losing to New Zealand by 32 runs in the T20 World Cup final in Dubai, they were highly impressive in the daring cricket they played, and their upset victory in the semi-finals over six-time champions Australia was one of the most complete all-round performances in South African cricket history.

“I’m very proud of the ladies. We had a discussion after the final and we told them all the positives that came out of the World Cup, but we also said nothing we say is going to make you feel better.

“But you have to take the positives out: making back-to-back finals in very different conditions and there were lots of individual accolades too. We were outplayed in the final and in hindsight there were things we could have done differently.

“I think our confidence started to grow after the India series, there were a few areas we identified, and some tools we gave the players in two skills camps we had, in which Paul and Baakier were heavily involved.

“Then we went to Pakistan and we could see from game one that things were starting to fall into place. Especially in terms of more aggressive batting, for which we got buy-in from the players.

“So real belief was there when we went to the World Cup, even though conditions were incredibly tough – the heart rates went up to 140-160 just standing still in the heat, so we had to have lots of water breaks.”

The Proteas have arrived in Zimbabwe as world Test champions ahead of their two-match series starting on Saturday, with all-rounder Wiaan Mulder saying the team enjoys a new, deeper bond after Lord’s, but it is something that the newcomers in the squad can also find welcoming.

Only six of the 14-man South Africa squad for the two Tests in Bulawayo were at Lord’s for the epic victory over Australia.

“It was the biggest Test win of our lives, so we had awesome celebrations with each other and our sponsors, before returning to our families and the people that mean the most to us. That reset was important because the World Test Championship final was an extremely high high, it was all a bit of a blur, there was so much adrenaline and I hardly slept for 10 days,” Mulder said this week.

“So to spend a couple of days at home was very important for us to come back to reality. We were treated like royalty before, but that’s not real life. Going from Lord’s, the home of cricket and all the history and tradition, to Bulawayo, I guess will make quite a difference too.

“It’s a new squad with a lot of guys wanting to prove a point, guys who have played so well domestically over the last couple of seasons to get here. So we’re not going to think too much about what happened in the WTC.

“But there’s a spirit in the squad that I’ve not seen before, to be honest. The big difference is our self-image, we now believe. I don’t think we always did believe we could beat the big teams, and there were lots of big moments that made us sore.

“There’s now a very big belief that we can reach those heights again and the young guys coming in believe that too. And we will continue doing it our way. But we’re not being arrogant because we know that we must still put our best foot forward on every ball.

“We’ve had those conversations already, that no matter what team is representing the Proteas, it will be the best team available at that time and we are the world champions. So we will train like we are the best in the world, we won’t be taking any steps back and we want to keep showing the character that means we keep coming back.

“Obviously some of the guys need some rest, but that provides an opportunity for someone else and we will still be pushing the bar as much as we can,” Mulder said.

The 27-year-old said he also wants to build a relationship with his new spot in the batting order – at number three. Things went poorly there for Mulder in the first innings at Lord’s as he came to the crease at the end of the first over, and struggled to 6 off 44 balls in a torrid test for any top-order batsman, let alone a makeshift one.

But he certainly showed mental steel in the second innings as he ensured he did not get ‘stuck’, moving fluently to 27 and helping Aiden Markram lay a crucial solid foundation up top as they added 61 for the second wicket.

“I wouldn’t say I was thrown in the deep end because I always see myself as a batsman. I think I have spent a lot of my career hiding behind wanting to be more of a bowler. I loved getting a chance at three and hopefully I can make it work because it balances the team nicely and I believe I can play in many different situations.

“I hope [coach] Shukri Conrad’s thinking stays the same, but I need to get runs wherever I bat. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my career and I don’t think I’ve done as well as I can or as well as Shukri thinks I can.

“But I will give everything I can because batting at three could just be a temporary thing. But hopefully I can fill that role through to the next WTC final. I’ve worked very hard technically on being able to manage the new ball and score runs. The final was only the second time I’ve batted there in Test cricket without a broken hand and I learned a lot.

“I want to be positive and show good intent. The first innings taught me that I need to get into positions to transfer the pressure, that is more important than just trying to survive. It’s important that I have the mindset of looking to score, that’s when I’m at my best and I did that more in the second innings.

“I’m still figuring it out; some people will say that means I’ve been thrown in the deep end, but others would say that’s the best place to learn because you get proof of whether what you’re trying to do will work,” Mulder said.

In terms of his bowling, the right-arm seamer acknowledges that it will take something of a miracle for him to keep up his bowling loads if he becomes settled at number three in the batting line-up.

“Every day I’m trying to work out how I’m going to manage the batting and the bowling, to still be able to bowl 15 overs in a day and bat number three – it’s finding that balance. Few people have been able to do that, even the King, Jacques Kallis, didn’t bowl as many overs when he batted number three.

“But I will always be the fourth bowler, which gives me a chance to step back a bit. That’s the planning at the moment and hopefully I make it very difficult for them to move me back to number seven. I’m 27 now and I really want to put my best foot forward,” Mulder said.

Helping the Central Gauteng Lions star produce his best in Zimbabwe will be stand-in captain Keshav Maharaj, who Mulder says has been a tremendous inspiration for him in his Proteas career.

“Keshav is someone I have really looked up to, since the beginning of my career. Before my first first-class game, he messaged me to congratulate me. He didn’t know me at all, but he reached out and that says it all about him as a person, I so admire him.

“He’s probably our best spinner ever, he knows exactly where each ball needs to go, he’s very calculating and he’s very caring. He’s been my captain at Durban Super Giants and his understanding of the game is very good.

“I tended to focus too much on what was happening in my head, but Keshav has been able to get me more in a routine and doing the things that give you success over a long period.

“I think he’ll be very proud captaining South Africa in a Test match for the first time, it’s been one of his aspirations because it’s the pinnacle of the game. I think he’s going to be a great captain and maybe it will open a door for him because who knows how long Temba Bavuma is going to be around?” Mulder said.