Ken Borland

When Thriston Lawrence arrived at Randpark Golf Club on Thursday, November 25, 2021, he did not bargain on it being the weekend that would change his life, and in some of the most chaotic circumstances ever.

It was the co-sanctioned Joburg Open, the first tournament after the European Tour had rebranded itself as the DP World Tour, and Lawrence’s first round was interrupted by an untimely thunderstorm when he was playing his final hole and was tied for the lead.

Mother Nature had an even bigger shock up her sleeve as the discovery of the Omicron variant of Covid by South African experts led to Britain making the drastic decision of imposing a ban on flights from South Africa, shortly followed later that night by many other European nations.

With several golfers withdrawing from the tournament in order to scramble home on the last few flights available, and the organisers cutting the event to three rounds, there was more rain and lightning on the second day, but Lawrence managed to complete his first round and get the full 18 holes in for his second round too, posting 65-65 for a four-shot lead.

So, on the third and now final day, many golfers still needed to finish their second rounds and with thundershowers returning around midday, no-one managed to finish their third round. And so Lawrence was awarded his maiden DP World Tour title.

It was just the second time he had won on the Sunshine Tour, and now he had full European playing privileges and a spot in the 2022 Open Championship at St Andrew’s. Lawrence’s Joburg Open triumph set in motion a staggering year that saw him also win the European Masters in August, as well as finishing tied-42^nd in his Major debut.

He became the first South African to win the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year, replicating the feat of such luminaries as Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia, Colin Montgomerie and Nick Faldo.

The 26-year-old Lawrence has made a tremendous start to the new DP World Tour season as well, last weekend winning the South African Open at Blair Atholl to go top of the order of merit.

“Everything I could’ve dreamed of happened this last year, my life changed and that motivates me to achieve even more in my career,” Lawrence said. “To play my first major at St Andrews, the Home of Golf, was incredible. Whatever I could’ve imagined it would be, it was triple that when I experienced it. I had my family with me and it was just incredible.

“Driving into Houghton Golf Club for the Joburg Open this year and seeing the signage with my photo and the trophy, you dream about those things when you’re a young golfer.

“Not much more than a year ago I never thought this would happen, and there’s a lot less pressure with that first win. And then you dream of moments like coming down the stretch at the SA Open, it’s what you strive for, in front of an amazing crowd. Those dreams have come true too, but it’s obviously not all the dreams I want to achieve, but it’s the start.

“It really motivates you because if you do that once you want to be there again. I just try to stay very calm in these situations [when contending]. But of course you do still get nerves and that gets the adrenaline flowing,” Lawrence said.

Born in Nelspruit on December 3, 1996, Lawrence is a bit of an anomaly when it comes to many golfer’s penchant for constantly tinkering with their swing and their game-plan – it sometimes seems like no sooner has a player found consistency with their swing than they bin it and try something new to try and get even better results.

Lawrence is a firm believer in ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.

“It’s been a great year and hopefully there are many more wins to come. I think the key has been keeping everything the same, including the way I practise and my routine.

“I’ve just kept on doing what I do, sticking to my game-plan. I’m a big believer in not changing what is working. Lots of people do make changes, but this is a game you can’t perfect.”

Constantly seeking perfection can lead to some pretty dysfunctional behaviour and perhaps Lawrence’s greatest asset is his calm demeanour and his ability to take the rough with the smooth. His SA Open triumph was witnessed by many friends and family, and it was clear from the celebrations that the two-time SA Amateur champion (2013 & 2014) has several caring relationships in his life.

After his win at Blair Atholl, he had to spend more than an hour on the 18^th green posing for a host of photographs for seemingly every sponsor under the sun and every member of the estate, as well as signing autographs and giving interviews. Lawrence did it all with a gentle smile on his face; no doubt that same patience and fortitude has much to do with his success as a golfer.

It all began when Lawrence was but five years old and his grandfather, who had retired to the Umdoni Park Golf Estate on the South Coast of KZN and had become a keen golfer, gave him a Little Tiger golf set. Lawrence remembers the set was red, colour-coded for the five-to-seven age-group.

Within a handful of years he was competing in junior tournaments – including at Leopard Creek where he is doing well right now in the Alfred Dunhill Championship – and he turned pro in 2014.

Having taken a couple of years to develop his winning nerve, he now has a collection of three DP World Titles, and it is a safe bet that that tally will increase.

Depending on whether you believe the suspended chief executive and his legal advisors, Cricket South Africa now have two CEOs in Thabang Moroe and Jacques Faul and it is a chaotic situation that is almost entirely the fault of the president Chris Nenzani and the CSA Board.

It has been more than six months now since CSA’s Social and Ethics and Audit and Risk committees provided the evidence needed to suspend Moroe on December 6. A time period which, according to Moroe’s lawyer Michael Bill, means his suspension has lapsed. Which is why the suspended CEO pulled his brazen stunt this week of rocking up to CSA’s offices in Melrose Estate to ‘report for duty’ and there just happened to be a radio journalist on the scene to take the photo …

Despite the South African Cricketers’ Association warning CSA at the beginning of the week that their failure to make progress on Moroe’s disciplinary hearing would seriously erode the small gains in confidence that have been painstakingly acquired by acting CEO Faul and director of cricket Graeme Smith, the CSA Board were taken by surprise by Moroe’s act of defiance and, despite having practically the whole day to respond, could only issue a statement after midnight in the early hours of Friday morning.

While acknowledging that it might not be easy to pin down a slippery character like Moroe, six months is surely enough time to formulate charges against him given that the financial audit was already picking up irregularities a couple of months into their brief. Plus the state of cricket in December and the relationships Moroe had destroyed with vital stakeholders such as the players association, sponsors and the media should be enough to dismiss a chief executive for obvious incompetence.

The CSA Board have made such a pig’s ear of the entire situation that it is easy to wonder if it has not all been deliberate. Nenzani and Moroe were certainly in cahoots for much of the program of Cricket Capture and it is known that there are still directors who want the former CEO back. Plus the person responsible for handling disciplinary matters, company secretary and head of legal Welsh Gwaza, is a known Moroe ally.

Perhaps commercial manager Clive Eksteen and chief operations manager Naasei Appiah should also get ideas now and return to work after they were suspended by Moroe at the end of October? The then CEO made them, along with Corrie van Zyl, who has already been found guilty and given a final warning, the scapegoats for SACA not receiving the image rights money that was due to the players. But the players’ association say there is proof that it was not Appiah, Eksteen and Van Zyl who were delaying the payments but Moroe himself. Such malfeasance should be sufficient reason to dismiss the CEO.

The CSA Board’s response to Moroe’s ‘return to work’ was to say he is still suspended. Those incompetent directors who have shown themselves to be utterly incapable of coming up with ideas that will benefit the game look set to argue that the former CEO was never told his suspension would only last six months. But Nenzani is on record as having promised the process would be completed within six months.

CSA’s disciplinary processes talk about employees only being suspended for two months, unless there are exceptional circumstances. The Board obviously believe there are exceptional reasons for them to have flouted process, while Moroe and his legal team are within their rights to claim they have been unfairly prejudiced, pointing out that there has been a lack of formal written communication and just ‘conversations’.

There is little doubt the whole fiasco is heading for court and it will be for a judge to decide whether CSA or Moroe are in the right.

It’s going to be yet another financial drain on an organisation that was in dire straits even before the Covid-19 pandemic. All of this overseen by Nenzani, who is still trying to wrangle the constitution into allowing him to stand for yet another term as president. He has changed the constitution three times already and is the longest-serving president South African cricket has ever had to endure. And what good has he done for the game?

For South African cricket-lovers, it has been another week of shame that our beloved sport is in the hands of such delinquents.