Ken Borland

DULLSTROOM (Mpumalanga) – Having pioneered women playing in a series of Sunshine Tour events, Vodacom have now increased their effort to promote gender equality in golf by giving the ladies playing in the Origins of Golf tournaments a golden opportunity to play in the Ladies European Tour’s Access Series.

Last year’s Vodacom Origins of Golf Series saw women compete with the men in the same tournament for the same R2 million prizemoney for the first time on the Sunshine Tour. This year, starting at the Highland Gate event which begins on Friday, new incentives have been introduced in order to encourage more women to take part in the series.

The response has been immediate, with nine female golfers, more than for any of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series tournaments last year, having entered.

The incentives are based around a new mini order of merit for the ladies who play in at least two of the three regular Vodacom Origins of Golf Series events and the final. The winner of that leaderboard will receive a cash prize, automatic entrance into the 2025 Joburg Ladies Open, co-sanctioned by the LET, and three tournament invites for the Access Series.

The Access Series is the LET’s official development tour and is based in Europe. The top six on the order of merit get cards for the LET, while positions seven to 20 go straight to the final stage of qualifying school.

While the promising Brittney-Fay Berger was able to sparkle in the last two events of the 2023 Vodacom Origins of Golf Series, it was generally tough going for the women with Cara Gorlei, Tara Griebenouw and Zethu Myeki making one cut each.

But to their credit, Vodacom have listened to the concerns of the Sunshine Ladies Tour players and have taken cognisance of the fact that they are breaking new ground and their bold move will take a while to bear fruit.

“We started last year with our effort to bring more women into the game because they don’t get enough tournament opportunities to showcase their talents,” Dr Ntombi Mhangwani, the executive head of Vodacom Business Marketing, says. “But with the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series going to four different regions, it gives our ladies more playing time and more exposure.

“We must remember though that they have not played with the guys before and so we have constant discussions with our partners, the Sunshine Tour and Flooid, about how we can make this initiative better. We are always talking about what worked well and what didn’t, what can we fix?

“The women are not yet competing on an equal footing so we have asked the Sunshine Ladies Tour professionals questions like ‘what courses work for them? How can we partner with you to get you where you want to be in your golf career? The Sunshine Tour has played a central role in pulling all the sponsors together, the whole ecosystem must work together to make this succeed,” Mhangwani says.

Gabrielle Venter, a new star on the Sunshine Ladies Tour having won the Standard Bank Ladies Open, after finishing fifth in the Dimension Data Ladies Pro-Am and runner-up in the SuperSport Ladies Challenge, admits to being a convert to the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series and the 20-year-old will tee it up with the men at Highland Gate this weekend.

“The incentives definitely made up my mind, getting an Access Series invitation is a big thing because it gives you a chance to play in Europe and get experience over there. And the Joburg Open is a Ladies European Tour event so there are a lot of world ranking points on offer there.

“I was waiting to see how the other ladies did last year in the Vodacom Origins of Golf, and they did pretty well. If you’re going to play but just never make the cut then it’s not worth the R15 000 a week you’ll be paying to compete, what with accommodation and everything,” Venter said.

The Bloemfontein Golf Club representative said Highland Gate was a good venue for the women to play because even though they are not given much advantage in terms of forward tees, it is a course on which most times you have to lay up anyway on the par-fives, so driving distance does not really matter as much.

DULLSTROOM (Mpumalanga) – A gentle breeze blew across the valleys and mountains of the Steenkampsberge on Thursday, the day before the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series kicks off for 2024 with the opening event at Highland Gate Golf and Trout Estate, a far cry from the gales that lashed the course on the first day of the pro-am.

The Vodacom Origins of Golf Series is held every year at some of South Africa’s finest golf clubs, grouping amateurs, leading business figures and customers with some of the top players on the Sunshine Tour. Once the pro-am finishes on Thursday, the professional tournament will be held over three rounds from Friday, and the leading contenders are united in their belief that Highland Gate will pose a stern challenge, especially if the wind gets up.

“It’s a great course and hopefully the weather stays good because it is really tough here in the wind,” Neil Schietekat said on Thursday. “The greens are slopey and quick, and if you add strong winds to them then it becomes really tricky.

“There are no giveaway birdies here, which is what I like on a course. You have to map your way around here, you can’t just hit-and-hope and then make an easy birdie. But I feel good about my game, I’ve found a bit of form and you know what they say, ‘be careful of the sleeping dog’,” Schietekat, who is coming off top-10 finishes in his last two Sunshine Tour events, said.

The Vodacom Origins of Golf Series also marks the return to action of one of the great gentlemen of the Sunshine Tour in George Coetzee, who last played competitively in May 2023 at the Italian Open on the DP World Tour.

Coetzee underwent wrist surgery and, on a happier note, became a first-time father in the interim. He was his usual smiling self on the putting green on Thursday, although he acknowledged some daunting golf was ahead of him.

“It’s good to be back and the wrist is rustig [calm]. I’m just going to go out and try and enjoy myself, but if the wind is up again like Wednesday then I could be in for some torture,” Coetzee said.

It is not just the men that will be tackling the Ernie Els designed course that is 6717 metres long and perched 2000m above sea level. Nine Sunshine Ladies Tour golfers are competing for the same prizemoney as part of Vodacom’s push to ensure the country’s leading women golfers enjoy more exposure and opportunity.

Cara Gorlei, the winner of the Jabra Ladies Classic at Glendower in April, and Gabrielle Venter, who claimed the Standard Bank Ladies Open title at Royal Cape Golf Club in March, will lead the women’s charge.

Vodacom have also introduced more incentives for those women who opt to play in the Origins Series, the winner of their own mini-leaderboard qualifying for the Joburg Open and three Access Tour events on the Ladies European Tour.

Danie van Tonder, the winner of the previous event on the Sunshine Tour, the FNB Eswatini Challenge at Nkonyeni Golf Estate, says the Highland Gate layout suits him as well.

“It’s a great course in excellent condition, the greens are very quick and tricky. But I haven’t yet found a course where if I take driver and hit it long, far and straight, I will not do well,” Van Tonder said.

The cricket season just past has seen Wiaan Mulder freed from his cell of self-imposed pressure and doubt, and the Central Gauteng Lions all-rounder’s reward has been a return to the Proteas T20 squad, albeit for the warm-up series against the West Indies in Jamaica at the end of this month and not the World Cup.

The Lions were the outstanding domestic team of the summer, winning both the four-day competition and the CSA T20 Challenge that ended last weekend in a final at the Wanderers, with the Gautengers easing past the KZN Dolphins by seven wickets with 14 balls to spare.

Mulder was at the forefront of that successful chase, blazing his way to a ferocious 55 not out off just 26 balls, with four sixes. It capped a superb tournament for the 26-year-old, who scored 248 runs at an average of 35.42 and a strike-rate of 139.32. Mulder also took 11 wickets and conceded just 7.10 runs-per-over, making him the only player to appear in the top-20 of both the batting and bowling averages.

It followed his destructive performances in the SA20 league, where he scored 297 runs at an average of 37.13 and a strike-rate of 157.14 for Durban Super Giants.

In the Lions’ triumphant four-day campaign, Mulder was their leading run-scorer with 549 at 54.90, which included a couple of centuries. He also claimed 16 wickets at an average of 26.50.

Little wonder then that the Proteas have come calling again. He played in the ODI series against India last December, but Mulder is set to play his first T20 international since September 2021 in Sri Lanka.

But in a candid interview before his selection was announced this week, Mulder admitted that he had not made the most of his previous Proteas call-ups.

“The biggest thing for me at international level is mental. I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself, which is made worse when you think every game could be my last,” Mulder said after the Lions’ T20 triumph.

“I do my best when I am just given the freedom to go out and play; unfortunately I’m an over-thinker and then I try too hard and get a bit down on myself. I’ve done relatively well with the ball for the Proteas, but I haven’t really shown what I can do with the bat. But maybe my time will come in the next couple of years,” Mulder said.

The all-rounder’s mantle is a tough one to bear in South African cricket because we have been blessed with arguably the greatest of them all – Jacques Kallis – as well as a succession of legends who could both win matches with the bat and double as a proper fast bowler: Mike Procter, Clive Rice, Kallis, Lance Klusener and Shaun Pollock have spoilt us.

Mulder does not bowl express pace, but he is a very handy practitioner who can fulfil a variety of roles. The St Stithians product says the presence of another great – Allan Donald – on the Lions coaching staff has helped him enormously in terms of growing his skills and even becoming a little quicker.

“Allan Donald has been massive for us and for me personally. I’ve been working with him to get more energy behind the ball, being able to bowl back-of-the-hand deliveries. It’s difficult bowling in the powerplay at the Wanderers, the ball really flies here, so I’ve had to up-skill a lot.

“I feel like I’m bowling well and it’s nice to be consistently bowling. Not bowling five matches in a row in the SA20 gets a little frustrating,” Mulder said.

The up-skilling Mulder has done on his batting will also hopefully pay off at international level.

“Russell Domingo [head coach] said there were certain things that have to get better in our game and there was an expectation to up-skill. There was a lot of hard work in the transition period after he became coach.

“And you could see when Reeza Hendricks and I were batting together in the final, we made sure the required rate never ran away from us even though we weren’t hitting boundaries. We were getting the ones and twos and making sure there were no dot-balls,” Mulder said.

Proteas captain Dean Elgar has spent much of the series pumping up the tyres of his team-mates, telling them how good they are, but now that Australia have won the rubber, he said on Tuesday, on the eve of the third and final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, that it was time for the team to make amends.

Well-beaten in both Brisbane and Melbourne, Elgar has made it clear that there is still much to play for and he expects his team to do everything in their power to restore some pride.

“There’s nowhere to hide in Test cricket and the top five need to find a way to execute their batting disciplines,” Elgar said. “Whatever we do in terms of selection, hopefully we provide a better spectacle than in the first two games.

“There’s also a lot for us still to play for – the World Test Championship final is a massive incentive – and we should be playing every Test like it is our last.

“But talk is cheap, we need to go out and perform and really make amends. It’s very frustrating because these are really talented players, but it just hasn’t gone our way.

“We want to go home with a lot of pride restored and so there’s still a lot to play for, as well as our position in the World Test Championship. It’s about how we rise up to the challenge and grasp the opportunity,” Elgar said.

Cynics would say whatever changes South Africa make to their XI will be like putting mag wheels on a skedonk. But the Proteas have to make at least one change due to Theunis de Bruyn returning home for the birth of his daughter.

“The only options in our squad in terms of batsmen are Rassie van der Dussen and Heinrich Klaasen,” Elgar confirmed. “Rassie has played for an extended period at Test level so he’s more experienced, while Heinrich is immensely talented and maybe deserves an extended chance.”

South Africa could well make a second change, bringing in a second spinner – Simon Harmer – but Elgar intimated that the off-spinner would have to replace another bowler.

“We need to have another look at the pitch, but Simon is definitely in the mix because Sydney has been low and slow, with a bit or turn, recently, so that might force our hand,” the captain said.

“But Keshav Maharaj is still our number one spinner and I’m still a 6/5 fan, that’s what I’m thinking. But all options are on the table, although playing seven batsmen makes it a massive ask for the bowlers.

“They’ve had a big workload, especially in the last Test when they racked up big numbers of overs. So it’s a big ask to have just four bowlers, especially only three seamers,” Elgar said.