Ken Borland

The Europeans may be largely missing but it does not detract from the tournament as the South African Open remains the biggest event of the year for local golfers, both the young and the old agreed at the Gary Player Country Club on Wednesday.

The hysterical reaction to the Omicron variant has ensured the 111^th SA Open (the second oldest national open in golf) is no longer the second event of the new DP World Tour but is just a Sunshine Tour tournament. But the 156-man field will have as much focus on the famous trophy though as the $500 000 prize fund when they tee off on Thursday.

The flagship event remains one of the most cherished weeks in South African golf and being played at the Gary Player Country Club course at Sun City, the host of the Nedbank Golf Challenge that has provided so many historic moments, but has sadly been unable to be held during these times of Covid.

GolfRSA and the South African Golf Association are the custodians of the SA Open and there is always a strong amateur contingent at the event, aiming for the Freddie Tait Cup for the best-placed amateur who makes the cut.

Christiaan Maas is the reigning SA Amateur champion and No.1 in the rankings, and he said the anticipation building into the tournament has been huge.

“It’s such a big tournament and I’ve been looking forward to it since last year after winning the SA Amateur. This week is a very big thing for me because this is the biggest tournament in South Africa,” the 18-year-old Maas said on Wednesday.

At the other end of the scale, James Kingston is a former SA Open champion, having won at Pearl Valley in 2007. Having turned 56 this week, he is delighted to be mixing it with the youngsters once again.

“The thrill of playing in the SA Open never wears off, it is the most treasured event in South African golf. I’m sure it’s the same with other countries and their national open,” Kingston said.

“This is the most sought after title in South African golf and to be able to come to Sun City, having won the tournament before, means the world to me,” Kingston said.

The Gary Player Country Club has been craftily designed to be the ultimate test of stamina, skill and accuracy though, and merely straying into the rough can be devastating. The lengthy 7105m course has caused the cremation of many a top golfer’s hopes.

Long hitters like Shaun Norris, Wilco Nienaber, defending champion Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Danie van Tonder could be favoured, but don’t discount the skilful golfers like Garrick Higgo, Dylan Frittelli or Justin Harding, or those in hot form like Joburg Open winner Thriston Lawrence, European Tour star Dean Burmester or JC Ritchie.

Ill-equipped leadership is something which really hits a nerve when it comes to South African cricket, largely due to the incompetent and self-serving Board and CEO which the game here had to labour under between 2017 and 2019.

So it was distressing this week to see the new CSA Board suffer their first mis-step, showing the same sort of reactionary leadership of their predecessors rather than the proactive management that is required of a billion rand organisation.

The Proteas have been grappling amongst themselves with issues of a new team culture for these changing times, especially since Black Lives Matter has made such a dramatic impression on the global sports environment. And the anti-racism message of that movement should hit particularly near to home due to the notorious history of our country.

Unfortunately, the team have not been able to come up with a unified response to BLM. It has not been a good look to see some of the team kneeling, others standing; some with fists raised, some with hands by their side.

But the CSA Board has failed to provide strong leadership in this regard. It’s not as if this issue has suddenly sprung upon them. How to properly acknowledge BLM has been a problem for the Proteas for more than a year. A proactive board would have known the spotlight would be on the team at a World Cup and would have ensured proper engagement was held with the squad and a solution found before the tournament. The sort of engagement that happened on Wednesday night once the crisis was already in full swing.

Instead, like a poor captain moving his field around in response to a boundary being hit, CSA chose the ham-fisted route of not consulting and issuing a directive, on the morning of a crucial game.

The national team have had their fill of arrogant administrators having the audacity to run cricket as their own fiefdoms, and the timing of the edict, and the fact that it came out of the blue without any consultation, was bound to cause some push-back.

Quinton de Kock’s initial refusal to take a knee, even though he is a product of a mixed-race family, caused near hysteria in this race-obsessed country of ours. Personally, I believe it is the right thing to take a knee for Black Lives Matter, but what worried me more about De Kock’s actions was that he was willing to leave his team in the lurch, pulling out of a crunch game two hours before the start, because he was very annoyed at being forced to make a gesture.

But many of his critics should perhaps take the beam out of their own eye before they try to remove the speck in De Kock’s eye. How many of them are anti-vaxxers? Because that is a similar issue of personal freedoms versus common good.

How many of those who viciously labelled the 28-year-old as a racist would be willing to make a gesture when it comes to protesting Farm Murders?

Because in many people’s eyes, rightly or wrongly, Black Lives Matter is as politicised an issue as Farm Murders. Just as there surely can be no moral objection to Black lives mattering, surely all farm murders are wrong?

This is where education is so important. CSA should have sat down with the players a long time ago and explained exactly what Black Lives Matter means in a South African context and what exactly the team would be supporting and protesting against should have been thrashed out and finalised.

Hockey being a largely amateur pursuit in South Africa has led to the implementation of delicate balancing acts by our national teams, but if one player stands out for their ability to juggle the demands of work and playing international sport then it is women’s goalkeeper Phumelela Mbande.

Mbande was the star of South Africa’s World Cup campaign in London last week, and was named player of the match for her sensational display in salvaging a 1-1 draw with world number three Argentina. But like Wonder Woman changing into the work clothes of Diana Prince, her civilian identity, Mbande takes off her pads, glove and chest protection and, when she returns to South Africa, will continue slogging away at her ‘real job’.

The 25-year-old is a qualified chartered accountant and is busy doing her articles with Price Waterhouse Coopers, a daunting enough task on its own without having the added ‘burden’ of ensuring she remains South Africa’s first-choice goalkeeper.

“It’s definitely not easy doing both, but there have been so many people willing to help, especially my varsity coaches at Tuks and PWC, I always say how lucky I am that everyone is willing to meet halfway. It’s been very tough and it has been a huge learning curve for me as a person, but I’m grateful for all the help I’ve had to make it easier,” Mbande says.

Hailing from Pietermaritzburg, Mbande started playing hockey in Grade V at Lynford Primary School and the challenge of being the goalkeeper and having a hard object fired at you from close range was appealing from the outset. Mbande agrees that it takes a special type of person to want to be a hockey goalkeeper.

“In all the teams you see, the goalkeeper is usually a standout character, you certainly won’t miss us!” Mbande laughs. “The position definitely suits me personality-wise, I’m a typical first-born, I like to get my way and I’m pretty independent. Goalkeepers are part of the team but we think of ourselves as a team within the team. Being goalkeeper has definitely allowed my personality to bloom.”

Mbande then went to Carter High School and she singles out the arrival of Marie-Laure Johnson as a teacher there when she was in Grade VII as being pivotal in her development.

“If there’s one person who has been a major influence then it’s Marie-Laure, who basically adopted me. During the World Cup now I went to visit her mother who lives in Stratford and that just shows the great relationship we have. She encouraged me to go and play at Collegians, where I was by far the youngest at the club, but I was able to be coached by Brian Edwards [former national captain who coached both the men’s and women’s national teams].

“Marie-Laure would give me lifts to the airport, bought me my first own kit and, outside of hockey, played a huge role in my life. She was definitely more than a coach to me, she’s a mentor and a friend.”

Mbande’s academic excellence earned her a PWC bursary to the University of Pretoria, where she also received a sports bursary, and she made her debut for South Africa in 2013. Initially she was playing in the considerable shadow of Sanani Mangisa, one of the country’s greatest goalkeepers, a double Olympian capped 112 times between 2006 and 2016.

“It felt like a great achievement to start out under Sanani because she was the first hockey personality I really looked up to, after she coached me in Grade VIII. She noticed one of my strengths was how hard I can kick the ball and it was awesome to come into the national team with her still there.

“But it was also very disappointing not to make the squads for the 2014 Commonwealth Games and World Cup. But I’ve learned quite a bit since then and I’m definitely a better goalkeeper now, I manage pressure better. But I still wish I had more time in the national team with Sanani,” Mbande says.

With the continued support of her mother, the shoulder she has cried on the most, Mbande says, and her two younger brothers, the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo are the next big sporting goal for one of the new stars of South African hockey.

“This was the first World Cup I’ve played in, so I was pretty excited to play so well and end on a high after we did not start so well. Considering everything that’s available to South African hockey teams, the Olympics are definitely top of the food chain and I would love to make it to Tokyo.

“But it’s one step at a time and God willing and if my employers allow it, then the Olympics will be my next big thing. Maybe one or two of the players will retire before then, but we still have a good group of players and massive talent, and two years is a good period in which to build.”

Mbande will be at the forefront of those plans and the excellence and determination she brings to all her endeavours can only be good for the game.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-kzn/20180804/281492162131681

Western Province held on to beat the Blue Bulls 45-34 in their Currie Cup match at Newlands on Saturday, largely because they had built up such a formidable first-half lead that they only needed to add one penalty in the second half to clinch victory.

Western Province produced a superb first half against a Bulls side that simply did not pitch for the first 40 minutes, playing ponderous rugby marked by their inability to hang on to the ball and some extremely soft defence, with the home side racing to a 42-13 lead at the break.

The Blue Bulls came storming back in the second half, largely because they managed to hold on to the ball far better and built pressure. But with such a massive lead, the sting had been taken out of the game for Western Province and they went through the motions for much of the second 40.

The roots of the victory lay up front for Western Province, being based on the wonderful efforts of their pack. They enjoyed obvious dominance in the scrums and even managed to pick off a couple of Blue Bulls lineouts.

While flyhalf Damian Willemse was the choice of the official judges for man of the match, lock JD Schickerling looked a different class in being the focal point of the Western Province forward effort.

Apart from his set-piece prowess, he was constantly in the thick of the action as a ball-carrier and worked hard in defence and at the rucks.

Willemse also had a fine game, highlighted by his 11^th-minute try when he ripped apart some flatfooted, ball-watching defence by the Bulls with some amazing stepping. The 19-year-old loves to attack the gain-line and, while one hates to heap the pressure of expectation on one so young, he does ooze class and has ‘future Springbok’ written all over him.

Willemse’s effort will no doubt be a contender for try of the season, but a long-range try by Blue Bulls wing Kefentse Mahlo could also be in the running. It will certainly be one of the most unlikeliest tries of the season.

Blitzbok Seabelo Senatla was racing for the Bulls line in the 57^th minute and looked certain to score when he was caught from behind by eighthman Nic de Jager, who has been the object of much derision in the horror season for the Pretoria team.

De Jager kept working hard after bringing down the Stormers wing, counter-rucking superbly. Fullback Duncan Matthews then picked up the ball and counter-attacked, freeing Mahlo for a 75-metre dash to the line.

But the defeat, their second in succession, sees the Blue Bulls, the early pacesetters, falling to fourth on the log, behind the Free State Cheetahs, Sharks and Griquas.

Points scorers

Western Province – Tries: Nizaam Carr, Damian Willemse, SP Marais, Seabelo Senatla (2), Scarra Ntubeni. Conversions: Marais (6). Penalty: Marais.

Blue Bulls – Tries: Piet van Zyl, Kefentse Mahlo (2), Johan Grobbelaar. Conversions: Tony Jantjies (4). Penalties: Jantjies (2).

http://citizen.co.za/sport/south-africa-sport/sa-rugby-sport/1609524/currie-cup-first-half-blitzkrieg-enough-for-western-province/