Ken Borland

PORT EDWARD (KwaZulu-Natal) – Joseph Kunene has been a successful SA Golf Development Board coach for 25 years and on Thursday his newest clutch of eager youngsters was on display at the Wild Coast Sun Country Club as they took part in one of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series’ development clinics.

Kunene’s current brood comprises 30 children, split evenly between the Durban, Margate and Wild Coast areas, and aged between eight and 14 years old. His previous groups have included wonderful success stories like Siyanda Mwandla, the ex Ernie Els and Fancourt Foundation member, and fellow professionals Thanda Mavundla and Sabelo Majola.

“I am currently managing the SAGDB programme in KwaZulu-Natal and I have been a coach for them since 1999, when I applied for the post of development officer with the KZN Golf Union,” Kunene explains.

“Players like Thanda Mavundla, who is playing in the Vodacom Origins of Golf Pro-Am today, and Siyanda Mwandla and Sabelo Majola have all come through this programme.

“But for the last three years I have been focused on mass participation more, starting from scratch again. These kids are still in the beginning stages and the better ones in this group are like a 21-handicap. But for all the kids, these clinics are a real eye-opener because they see professionals in the flesh, coaching them. They’re not just seeing them on TV and it gives them hope. One day their wish will hopefully be to become a professional as well.”

Kunene started playing the game when he was 14 years old in Newcastle, working as a caddy at the Durnacol Golf Club. His excellence saw him become the club’s strokeplay and matchplay champion between 1994 and 1998. Kunene also showed his willingness to give back as he served on the club’s executive committee as the vice-captain for two years.

“I discovered that I loved the game and then I applied for the development officer job, and in my 25 years with the SA Golf Development Board, I have travelled all over KZN. But it’s your passion for the game that drives you, Kunene says.

SUN CITY – Martin Rohwer is eager to start the new season well and get up the order of merit as soon as he can, and the four-time Sunshine Tour winner surged to the top of the leaderboard after the first round of the SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun City on Wednesday.

Rohwer, who began his round with an eagle on the par-five 10^th, fired a five-under-par 67 at the Gary Player Country Club on Wednesday to claim a one-stroke lead after the first day of the third event so far this season.

The Kloof Country Club member hit a 270m drive on the 505m 10^th and then hit a hybrid just short of the green, from where he sank his chip for the eagle-three. He birdied the next par-five, the 14^th, and then gathered three successive birdies on the 18^th, 1^st and 2^nd holes. His final birdie came on the par-four sixth, while he only dropped two shots, making fives on the par-four 13^th and eighth holes.

“Obviously it was a great start, chipping straight up the hill into the hole for an eagle on my first, and I played some solid golf after that too,” Rohwer said. “It was a very cold morning, but then it warmed up and there was really not much wind, it was a lovely benign day.

“I drove the ball really well today, which is obviously a big advantage at Gary Player Country Club because then your second shots are not too difficult. This course does suit my game, I won the Vodacom Origins of Golf Final here in 2022 and last year I had a chance to win this event before finishing third. It’s a fader’s course and I fade the ball off the tee.

“I’m just trying to get up The Courier Guy Order of Merit early doors this season and then I will work on my swing during the break later this month,” Rohwer said.

Rohwer was one stroke ahead of Lyle Rowe and Werner Deyzel, who shot four-under-par 68s.

In stark contrast to Rohwer, Deyzel started his round with a bogey on the par-four first hole and then a double-bogey at the par-five second. But instead of responding with bile, the 24-year-old Deyzel summoned brilliance and played his next 16 holes in a remarkable seven-under-par. He also eagled the 10^th and made five birdies.

Zimbabwe’s Stuart Krog, who first came to prominence in 2014 with his tenacious performances in the World Junior Golf Series, shining alongside the most promising Brazilian, South African, Irish, Scandinavian and American talent, was on three-under-par 69 alongside Estiaan Conradie and Sweden’s Fredrik From.

The Sunshine Ladies Tour returns to the Western Cape this week with the Standard Bank Ladies Open at Royal Cape Golf Club and stalwart Stacy Bregman is eager to continue the steady improvement she has shown this season and mount a strong defence of her title.

Bregman claimed her sixth Sunshine Ladies Tour title in April last year when she won the tournament at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington’s West Course, beating Lee-Anne Pace in a playoff. She began this year’s campaign by missing the cut in the Dimension Data Pro-Am at Fancourt, but then finished tied-38^th in the SuperSport Ladies Challenge at Lost City and then tied-19^th in last week’s Fidelity ADT Ladies Challenge at Blue Valley Golf Estate, where she was in contention for the title before shooting 75 in the final round.

The 37-year-old Bregman says her game is really starting to come together.

“I do feel like I’m starting to find the keys to my game again, even though I wasn’t playing that well at first. But I’ve felt it coming together and my results have been getting better and better,” Bregman said.

“I’m in a good space, my game is trending in the right direction and I’m feeling good. I’ve been putting really well this year, but I could be a bit better off the tees.

“And you’ve got to be good off the tees at Royal Cape, because it’s quite tight and old-school. It’s about positioning yourself and putting well, but it gets really tricky, especially if there are winds, if you’re not in the right positions,” Bregman said.

Royal Cape is the oldest golf course in South Africa and much restoration work has been done in recent years with the original design of Charles Murray and the indigenous landscape at front of mind. The course is built on sandy fynbos plains, but hectares of the endemic Cape Flats vegetation has been lost to the pressures of urbanisation, so Royal Cape have embarked on a program of bolstering the endangered locally-adapted flora.

Although relatively flat, Royal Cape is a challenging course that has 58 bunkers and six holes that feature water. The parklands layout, with Table Mountain looming over it, is exposed to the famous Cape Doctor, the south-easterly wind which is a near-constant obstacle when it comes to finding the tree-lined fairways. It has hosted the South African Open for men 10 times.

The Sunshine Ladies Tour has seen strong competition this season with three different winners thus far – Kylie Henry, Tvesa Malik and Helen Kreuzer – and all three of them are in the field again this week.

The trio come from Scotland, India and Germany respectively, showing the greater interest from overseas that the tour is generating. But South Africa also has some amazing talents to keep an eye on and Kiera Floyd, Gabrielle Venter, Nicole Garcia, Cara Gorlei, Tandi McCallum, Nadia van der Westhuizen and Bregman herself are all capable of winning the R600 000 Standard Bank Ladies Open.

CENTURION, Gauteng – South Africa’s Sunshine Ladies Tour professionals are eager to grab the silverware after the overseas contingent’s conquest of the opening two tournaments this season, when the third event, the Fidelity ADT Ladies Challenge, gets underway at Blue Valley Golf Estate from Wednesday.

Scotland’s Kylie Henry opened the season with victory in the Dimension Data Ladies Pro-Am at Fancourt, and India’s Tvesa Malik then triumphed at the SuperSport Ladies Challenge presented by Sun International at the Lost City.

Lejan Lewthwaite will lead the local challenge as the highest-ranked South African in the order of merit playing in the R250 000 tournament, currently in 16^th position.

“It’s only a matter of time, I believe, before we have a South African winner this season. There are a lot of really good local golfers and this is only the third event, so we are still getting into the season,” Lewthwaite said.

“I’m definitely confident in the talent we have and any one of us can win this week. But there are a lot of European golfers over in South Africa at the moment, a lot of the top players in the order of merit will be playing, so it is still a very strong field. We will have to keep our games on point.”

Both Henry, who leads the order of merit, and Malik will be teeing it up on the Gary Player design, while Romy Meekers, Lauren Taylor, Ana Dawson and Helen Kreuzer are all in the top-10 of the standings and have entered this week.

Lewthwaite finished 20^th at both Fancourt and Lost City and her autopsy of her performance so far makes her feel that a strong performance is around the corner.

“I’m hitting the ball quite well but things have just not gone my way yet. That can be the difference between finishing 20^th or top-10 and even contending, you need things to fall your way.

“But the game is there and I just need to build some momentum and I’ll be on my way. I enjoy Blue Valley, it’s a very nice course and should be in good condition. It’s pretty open off the tees and I just want to play to my own strengths, which is a sharp short game. I read the greens well so I’ll be pretty confident around Blue Valley,” Lewthwaite said.