Ken Borland

HARARE – The prices you pay for inaccuracy at the Royal Harare Golf Club are steep, but Michael Hollick continues to largely avoid that problem with his precise game taking him to the top of the leaderboard after the third and penultimate round of the FBC Zim Open on Saturday.

Hollick followed up his first two rounds of 66 and 67 with an impressive 68 in the third round, leaving him on 15-under-par and enjoying a one-stroke lead going into Sunday’s final round.

The one-time Sunshine Tour winner made a slow start on Saturday, with a bogey on the par-three second meaning he was one-over after four holes. But he then birdied the fifth and sixth holes, and began the back nine birdie-birdie. Hollick followed up a bogey on the par-three 15^th with an eagle on the 16^th, and then birdied 17 before dropping a shot on the last hole to halve his lead.

“This golf course is very demanding, there’s not a lot of room for error. You have to be accurate, it’s like a game of chess out there,” Hollick said. “The greens are super-quick, probably the fastest we play on all year and they are very firm now after three days.

“They’re also all elevated with run-offs and narrow entrances to the greens, so if you don’t hit your target then you’re unlikely to get up-and-down. But I’m definitely feeling good, the last few months have been good for me and success breeds confidence. My swing and my short game are good and I’m just sticking to my guns,” Hollick said.

While other golfers have found the back nine at Royal Harare Golf Club especially testing, Hollick’s cool and calm approach saw him prosper there on Saturday as he came home in 33 shots, one or two strokes less than anyone else in the top four.

“Of late, I’ve been making a bogey at the start of my round, but I’ve always been able to recover. I’m quite relaxed, so I just carry on, knowing a birdie is probably around the corner.

“On the back nine today, I hit all the fairways, except for 18, and hit some nice irons, which makes it much easier to get those birdies,” Hollick said.

The evergreen Darren Fichardt is the chief challenger to Hollick, his 69 on Saturday lifting him to 14-under-par. The 48-year-old had four birdies and three bogeys, but an eagle at the par-five sixth made all the difference.

Kieran Vincent is the chief home hope on 11-under-par after a 67, leaving him tied for third with Anthony Michael (71). But two more Zimbabweans, Benjamin Follett-Smith and Kieran’s older brother Scott are one shot further back, alongside MJ Viljoen (66).

Follett-Smith fired the low round of the day, a seven-under-par 65, and was five-under at the turn.

Bulls supporters can treat themselves to a top-class rugby match for just R25 on Saturday as ticket prices for their crunch game against Ulster at Loftus Versfeld have been slashed.

The move follows a disappointing response last weekend to government’s relaxing of the Covid regulations to allow sports stadiums to have spectators up to 50% of capacity.

The biggest attendance in the four United Rugby Championship matches played in South Africa last weekend came at Kings Park in Durban when a crowd of 5120 braved a torrential downpour and a frustrating loss for the Sharks team against Edinburgh. But that was still less than 10% of capacity.

Cape Town Stadium (capacity 55 000) had a crowd of 3544 for the Stormers’ nailbiting win over Ulster, about 3000 people attended the Bulls’ previous game at Loftus Versfeld (capacity 50 000) and Ellis Park (capacity 62 000) had a paltry crowd of 2500 for the Lions’ impressive win over the Ospreys, but it was a Friday night, 7pm kickoff in Doornfontein, which is always a hard sell.

A variety of reasons have been put forward for the poor attendances, including a lack of sufficient time for both the unions and the fans to change their plans in response to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement.

Ticket prices have also been suggested as a deterrent in these tough economic times. Cape Town Stadium tickets ranged in price from R80 to R200 per person, Kings Park was R50 to R160 and Ellis Park was R40 to R180.

Tickets for the match between the Bulls and the Dragons were at an average of R100, so prices have been slashed by a whopping 75%. And it has proven to be a success with CEO Edgar Rathbone revealing they had sold 3000 tickets on Tuesday morning alone.

The fact that the stadiums can now also sell alcohol to spectators could be a telling factor as well to getting the crowds back to rugby.

Anecdotally, other reasons that have been put forward for not attending include the requirement that all spectators be vaccinated or produce a negative Covid test that is less than 72 hours old; the hassle of getting to some of the stadiums making it much easier to just watch on TV; and security concerns.

There has been no word yet on whether the Sharks, Lions and Stormers will follow the Bulls’ lead in cutting the price of tickets. Their websites still reflected the same prices as for last weekend on Tuesday afternoon.

But rugby administrators should be able to tell from the size of the crowd at Loftus Versfeld at 2pm on Saturday whether ticket prices really do make a difference to attendance.

Prices will have to be paid for another Proteas’ batting failure as South Africa look to stay alive in the series when the second Test against India starts at the Wanderers on Monday, their batting line-up being further weakened by the absence of Quinton de Kock.

The wicketkeeper was always going to miss the New Years Test as well as the final match of the series due to the birth of his first child, but then rocked the Proteas camp even further by announcing his retirement from all Test cricket on Thursday evening, just hours after South Africa had lost the first Test by 113 runs.

Kyle Verreynne is the most likely replacement for De Kock, although Ryan Rickelton has the advantage of playing on his home ground and being in red-hot form with two centuries in his last two innings at the Wanderers.

There is a chance that both could play if the Proteas decide to go into the match with just four frontline bowlers, replacing Wiaan Mulder with a specialist batsman. The all-rounder has done a solid job with the ball, but he has made just 106 runs in eight innings this year. South Africa need more from their No.7.

Keshav Maharaj is indisputably South Africa’s No.1 spinner and one of the senior players, but he was unused in the Indian second innings at Centurion and went wicketless in 18 overs on the first day. If the Wanderers pitch is similar – and it has certainly given the pacemen plenty of assistance so far this summer – then the Proteas will be tempted to leave Maharaj out and play an all-seam attack with Duanne Olivier joining left-armer Marco Jansen, who took four wickets in the Indian second innings and also showed enough gumption with the bat to do well at No.8.

Captain Dean Elgar paid a massive compliment to Jansen after the first Test and he also supported the suggestion that Keegan Petersen, who has scored just 76 runs in his five Test innings but in all of them he has come to the crease with less than five runs on the board, drop down the order.

“We’ll definitely look into the all-rounder position,” Elgar said. “Wiaan has been pretty good with the ball but obviously has not lived up to the standards he has set himself with the bat.

“So we’ll be having the sort of open conversations we need to have in this environment. I thought Marco was our player of the game and had a brilliant debut. But carrying two all-rounders is maybe not ideal.

“It’s a valid point about Keegan dropping down the order and that’s also a conversation we’ll have. We could potentially exercise that option, it’s not a bad idea to give him better opportunity against the older ball.

“He’s played three Tests and they’ve all been in relatively tough batting conditions. It’s been a rough start to his career but it doesn’t reflect on him as a player. He is extremely talented, he’s been one of our best domestically for a few years,” Elgar said.