Max Homa of the United States with the trophy as he celebrates his four-shot victory in the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Gary Player CC on Sunday. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
Max Homa probably won’t actually enlist the services of a rolodex when it comes to remembering his magnificent approach shot on the ninth hole at Gary Player Country Club on Sunday, but the winner of the Nedbank Golf Challenge left no doubt that his superb three-iron that led to a defining eagle will live long in his memory.
And also in the history of the tournament as Homa’s second from 240 yards landed 18 feet from the pin on the iconic ninth green and he rolled in the eagle putt. With Thorbjorn Olesen having just claimed his sixth birdie of the front nine to catch the American on 16-under-par, the eagle gave Homa a crucial two-shot buffer as the back nine beckoned.
“The second on the ninth was the shot of the tournament for me,” Homa said after clinching an impressive four-shot victory, his great final round of 66 taking him to 19-under-par.
“My coach [Mark Blackburn] always says I must have a rolodex of big moments to look back on and that was definitely one for the memory bank.
“I had a good lie in the semi-rough and a good number, and I hit a great three-iron. If you don’t get the ball very high in the air here then the elevation doesn’t help as much and it was a bit shorter than I wanted.
“But it was one of those shots you dream about and a really great time to hit a good shot. I was three-under at the time but still tied for the lead, which shows how impressively Thorbjorn played.
“I wanted to make a statement to myself and not back off. I didn’t need to play that shot because I was sharing the lead, but I knew I could make it. My caddy [Ben Marsh] said if I feel it then I must just go for it, and then I sunk a great putt,” Homa said.
The on-fire Olesen also birdied the par-five 10th hole from close range and the Dane was back level again when Homa bogeyed the par-four 11th, his approach being too far left and two chips being required to get on to the green.
But the class of the world number eight then shone bright as a beacon, almost like the giant star that is traditionally lit up on the hill overlooking Sun City as the festive season kicks into gear.
Olesen (-14) and Nicolai Hojgaard (-15) both missed key chances in the closing holes and Olesen surrendered second place to his compatriot when he double-bogeyed the 17th, missing a short putt for a five on the famous par-four, having found the fairway bunkers with his drive.
What Homa later described as a “humungous stroke of luck” saw his errant drive on the 14th hit a rules official’s cart parked on the pathway next to the fairway, preventing the ball from bouncing into the think Pilanesberg bush. He was able to par the par-five and then a seven-foot birdie on the 15th put Homa two ahead, and an unlikely birdie on the par-three 16th, when he rammed in a 38-foot putt, sealed the deal.
Fellow American Justin Thomas also shot a 66 on Sunday to soar up the leaderboard into fourth place on 12-under-par, while DP World Tour rookie Dan Bradbury finished fifth on 11-under, the rubble of three bogeys and a double-bogey on the par-four 11th being too much to sustain a challenge despite his six birdies.
The removal in recent times of American contenders from the Nedbank Golf Challenge – Jim Furyk being the last United States golfer to win in 2006 – has certainly taken some of the gloss off the tournament, but Homa was appreciative of the history of Africa’s Major and delighted to now be part of its legacy.
“I’m big into manifesting and there are some pretty big names on the plaques of all the winners around the ninth green – Seve Ballesteros and Ernie Els are greats of the game. So I was picturing my name on one of those plaques and to achieve that, especially straight after Tommy Fleetwood, who is one of my favourite people on the planet, is really special.
“I know Tommy really wanted to win three in a row, but he got us at the Ryder Cup and now I’ve got one on him,” a grinning Homa said.
I’m sure I speak for most birdwatchers when I say it’s funny how the memory of spotting a Lifer is often permanently seared on the brain with the details of the moment immediately springing to mind.
So much so that when I came across this sightings list from a February 2006 trip to Ndumo Game Reserve in northern Zululand, I could immediately picture in my mind’s eye the little loop off the Paphukulu road that goes around a corner and then crosses a dry river bed before going slightly uphill again and returning to the main road.
As one approaches the dried up river, there is a thorn tree on the other side that hangs over the bank and there, in the gathering gloom of dusk, was a massive owl perched on the edge of the branches, surprisingly exposed.
By its large size I was immediately thinking Giant Eagle Owl and a quick squizz through the binoculars confirmed the diagnostic pink eyelids of the bird now known as Verreaux’s Eagle Owl, annoyingly because those French naturalists had nothing to do with the discovery nor naming of the bird.
The Giant Eagle Owl normally spends its days perched inside a leafy tree along a watercourse and they often begin their nightly hunting forays along an open, dry riverbed.
So perhaps my Lifer Giant Eagle Owl was eager to get going with what would have been its ‘breakfast’. For which I was very grateful and shall always remember my first sighting of what is truly a magnificently impressive bird. Not for nothing are they known as the Martial Eagles of the night sky.
The Paphukulu road runs along the south-western border of Ndumo and is always a very interesting drive as the sand forest and dense thorn thicket of the central regions of the reserve grades into dry savanna woodland, a more bushveld type area dominated by Knobthorn Acacias.
On that steamy February day, there were typical savanna woodland birds present like the Eurasian Bee-Eater, Masked Weaver, Redbacked Shrike, Cardinal Woodpecker, African Hoopoe, Little Bee-Eater, Sabota Lark and Crested Francolin.
The boundary fenceposts along the Paphukulu road are always worth keeping an eye on and Pallid Flycatcher, which is found in the Acacia woodlands of Zululand but is replaced by the Marico Flycatcher in that habitat further west, was spotted as well and then further down the road an interesting-looking raptor was seen perched.
It was a medium-sized brown bird, initial thoughts revolving around a Steppe Buzzard, which often perch on these fence poles. But this bird seemed a bit bigger and then, when it turned around to show its underparts they were all-rufous brown with no hint of white on the breast.
It was an immature Jackal Buzzard, which is not often seen in the tropical north-eastern lowveld, but juveniles do sometimes wander over from the escarpment, in this case probably the nearby (less than 100km) Lebombo Mountains.
An immature Steppe Buzzard was seen later on and Sombre Bulbuls also make their way into this area, on the fringes of the thorn thicket.
Icterine Warbler was also seen in the thorn trees close to the Giant Eagle Owl spot, a good sighting because it is scarce in these parts and sparsely distributed in KwaZulu-Natal as a whole.
The next day, on a small track leading to the NRC Picnic Spot, an even more seclusive but much bigger warbler was spotted. The Olivetree Warbler is a very uncommon and often overlooked Mediterranean summer visitor and I managed to get a glimpse of one foraging in a dense grove of acacias.
Heading back from west-to-east on the Paphukulu-Balemhlanga roads, the more open knobthorn woodlands allowed one to tick other typical bushveld gems like African Cuckoo and both the Eurasian and Lilacbreasted Roller.
It’s an under-rated but always good drive. Ndumo is more famous for the Nyamithi Pan and its guided walks.
But on this occasion in mid-summer, the pan was full to the brim, meaning a much lower waterbird count. There were egrets patrolling the shoreline and Wiretailed Swallows flew overhead along with passing groups of Trumpeter Hornbills.
A full Nyamithi Pan
Closer observation of the fringes of the pan, with bushy cover now right up to the edge of the water, provided sightings of Purple and Greenbacked Heron and Water Dikkop. Where there were some muddy edges, Wood Sandpiper was seen.
African Fish Eagles were seen in the Fever Trees on the other side of the pan, while both Pied and Giant Kingfisher were present, and a Hamerkop came yelping past as Hippopotamus frolicked in the water.
The road back from Nyamithi Pan to camp takes one past the reserve’s vulture restaurant, an open patch in which carcasses of deceased large mammals like Giraffe are dumped. There’s almost always something interesting hanging around and occasionally some real specials wander into this area.
On this occasion a Lesser Spotted Eagle, a Palearctic migrant which, given its preference for savanna and open woodland you wouldn’t fancy seeing at Ndumo, was strolling around on the ground. A real raptor special.
A Reedbuck was also pottering around.
The most famous of the Ndumo guided walks is probably North Pongolo, which takes one through the climax riverine forest of the beautiful dark brown river that has flown from Utrecht in Northern Natal, crossed the Lebombo Mountains and is now close to its confluence with the Usutu and its journey to Maputo Bay.
But the fullness of the Nyamithi Pan was a hint to the conditions of the Pongolo floodplain in general and the North Pongolo forest had been flooded and was temporarily off the roster for guided walks.
So instead a guide and I went to Shokwe Pan, an ear-shaped, generally shallower pan nearly seven kilometres long and in the western portion of Ndumo.
This turned out to be an excellent move because we came across, there in the thickets below the majestic Sycamore Fig trees, an African Broadbill, one of the Ndumo specials that is especially challenging to find.
But on this occasion this largely black, grey, brown and white oddity was just sitting on its display perch and allowed us to approach close enough for me to get a photo.
African Broadbill
Other typical forest birds seen at Shokwe were Squaretailed Drongo, Collared Sunbird and Blackheaded Oriole, while Samango Monkey were enjoying themselves high in the trees, keeping their distance as they usually do.
A couple of Darter flew over and there were also a few flocks of Whitefaced Duck which passed by.
The route to and from camp, which is in the south-east of the park, to Shokwe takes you right through the centre of Ndumo and the densest, most impenetrable thickets probably anywhere in the country.
Birding is difficult but there are always surprises for the keen-eyed.
On this occasion the biggest surprise was coming around a corner and finding a thorn tree had toppled over and was blocking the road. Refusing to be denied my route through the wonderful sand forest in the middle of the park, prime birdwatching territory and known for the rare birds that are in residence, I was forced to tow the offending tree out of the road with my car!
Tree v Car … and the Car won
My determination was partly rewarded with good sightings of Crested Guineafowl, Orangebreasted Bush Shrike, Dwarf Mongoose and Scimitarbilled Woodhoopoe, while little pans secluded in the forest provided Woollynecked Stork, Common Sandpiper and Greenspotted Dove.
The woodlands on the southern, hilly side of the park are also rich in birdlife. In the thickets and rank grass under the trees one gets the beautiful Melba Finch busily going about its business, normally with a Rattling Cisticola shouting the odds nearby. Neddicky (especially where there are fallen trees), Bronze Mannikin and Common and Blue Waxbill share this habitat too and Tawnyflanked Prinia is often around as well.
Bleating Warbler prefers thicker cover and will often call from a perch two-to-three metres up a tree. While looking for this secretive little bird, the likes of Paradise, Spotted and Black Flycatchers, Redfaced and Speckled Mousebird, Longbilled Crombec, Brownhooded Kingfisher, Puffback, Blackbellied Starling, Crowned Hornbill, Southern Black Tit and Purplecrested Lourie can also be spotted in the trees.
Searching carefully in the canopies threw up African Green Pigeon and Eurasian Golden Oriole.
Birding around the main camp, set in typical Maputaland woodland, is also good and the highlights from there on this trip were a Lanner Falcon, a regionally threatened bird that happened to fly by, probably heading to nearby grasslands to forage, while I was patiently watching the sky from my camp chair, and a Grey Sunbird, an Important Bird Area trigger species, that popped in for some nectar from the flowering hedge and a drink from a birdbath.
There is a forgotten early-1980s pop star by the name of Jona Lewie, a rather avant garde electro-pop musician who just happens to be one of my all-time favourites. Perhaps songs like Stop the Cavalry, You’ll always find me in the kitchen at parties and Louise will jog the memory because they were all big hits in South Africa.
But apart from those hits, Lewie also wrote a more classical piece entitled Rearranging the Deckchairs on the Titanic, which is all about making changes to something which are always doomed to be futile.
I was thinking about that piece when SuperRugby’s regular season came to an end last weekend and the Cheetahs and Kings played their final games, while the critically endangered Western Force made a statement of their own by hammering the Waratahs, the favourite sons of Australian rugby.
Sanzaar have not only forgotten the high standards and norms that made Super Rugby the greatest competition in rugby but have also shifted away from one of the cornerstones of any successful sporting endeavour and that is the integrity of the competition.
There is no doubt that the current iteration of SuperRugby is not a hit and it is rapidly losing value, while costs have escalated by bringing in extra teams, especially the expansion sides from Japan and Argentina.
I believe it is always a good thing to be inclusive, though, and the problem with SuperRugby is not so much the number of teams participating but the totally farcical nature of the tournament itself.
It is guaranteed to cause disdain amongst a sports’ customers – the people who watch it – when a team like the Brumbies, who won just six of their 15 conference matches, gets to host a quarterfinal, like they did on Friday against the Hurricanes. Even the people of Canberra didn’t seem enamoured by the idea, given the poor crowd that was present.
There is no integrity to the competition because lesser-performing teams are advantaged and not everyone plays each other – not having to face any New Zealand sides is clearly a massive advantage.
So cutting the number of teams but keeping the same competition format is clearly merely rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic and is not going to stop SuperRugby from sinking into the depths of history.
And, let’s be honest, the axing of teams like the Kings, Cheetahs and possibly Force is not about their competitiveness. Sport is not only about those teams that are consistently winning, part of the romance are the wonderful stories of the underdogs causing shock upsets.
The Kings and Force, having won just as many games as the Brumbies, who made the finals, can argue that they are not even minnows, while the Cheetahs finished above the safe Bulls in the final standings.
The fact that the Kings and the Cheetahs will now ply their trade in Europe will have far-reaching consequences. With much easier travelling schedules and no country as dominant as New Zealand, I’m sure SA Rugby will discover the grass is greener in the northern hemisphere.
If South Africa pull out of SuperRugby entirely, it will definitely hurt New Zealand because it was our viewership numbers that fetched top dollar with the broadcasters, and without their share of that bigger pool, the All Blacks will find it increasingly more difficult to stop European teams from raiding their best players.
If Sanzaar are to have any hope of saving SuperRugby, they have to sort out the format and somehow come up with something that is going to ensure the integrity of the competition as well as be easier to understand for the average fan.
The current format was largely brought in to ensure bigger interest in Australia, but for how much longer will New Zealand rugby be willing to carry their neighbours across the ditch?
John 14:20 – “On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”
All the effort and striving in the world, all the good works and great sacrifices, will not help you to become like Christ unless the presence of the living Christ is to be found in your heart and mind.
Jesus needs to be the source, and not our own strength, that enables us to grow spiritually in strength, beauty and truth.
Unless the presence of Christ is a living reality in your heart, you will not be able to reflect his personality in your life.
You need an intensely personal, more intimate relationship with Christ, in which you allow him to reveal himself through your life.
