Ken Borland

GolfRSA have sought clarity from government over the status of golf courses and clubs when South Africa’s Covid-19 Lockdown is eased to Level III on June 1, after the spread of rumours on social media that while Sunshine Tour professionals will be able to resume competition, golf courses and clubs will remain closed for amateur or recreational golf.

Officials from GolfRSA, which runs all golf in the country and technically even represent the professionals of the Sunshine Tour, are known to have had discussions on Monday afternoon with Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa but will not comment further than the statement they issued prior to that conversation on Monday.

“Following President Ramaphosa’s speech on Sunday night …, GolfRSA – on behalf of the delegation representing the golf industry – is waiting for the Level III Lockdown regulations to be gazetted before making any comment. Meanwhile, we are urgently seeking clarity on golf’s position from government,” the statement read.

The Level III regulations could be published as quickly as Tuesday.

GolfRSA have previously submitted a proposal for the reopening of golf courses and clubs to the minister, which he then took to the Command Council. Insiders have told The Citizen that the submission focused on the obvious reasons for allowing golf to be played, such as the safety of the sport in terms of social distancing, all the studies which indicate it is a valuable source of exercise, and the socio-economic factors. Re-opening courses and clubs would allow more than 40 000 people, many of them vulnerable low-income workers, to return to work. The golf industry as a whole employs more than 250 000 people.

The long suspension of golf has seen eight clubs permanently close their doors and 34 others are considering retrenchments.

In terms of professional golf, the U.S. PGA Tour will kick off with the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, from June 11, but it’s going to be a long wait for the many South Africans on the European Tour, which will restart with the British Masters from July 23. Both tours will return to play without any spectators allowed.

The Sunshine Tour are believed to feel it is more important to get amateur and recreational golf up and running first because the professional game is not keen to play without spectators.

The SuperRugby Conference system is bad for South African rugby as a whole, Bulls director of rugby Jake White believes, because it does not encourage the local franchises to work together.

SuperRugby is now a competition within a competition, with playoff spots depending on where teams finish in their respective conference, which means matches between South African teams are of increased importance. White, a former Springbok coach who battled with provincialism during his tenure from 2004 to 2007, believes this is unhealthy.

“The one thing that has changed since I was last involved in SuperRugby with the Sharks in 2013-14 is the Conference system. I’m not a fan of it, I believe you should play everybody else and the top teams from wherever get into the playoffs. We know the current tournament is not having the same impact as the old SuperRugby. Sometimes less is more and with more and more teams and games being added, it has led to teams not playing everyone.

“It also means that you don’t want the other South African sides to do well, whereas in the old days you would want the South African teams to knock over the opposition on tour and there might even have been some information shared on that. I don’t think it’s good for our rugby as a whole. But at least the six-team domestic competition they are working towards will give us some sort of rugby,” White told Saturday Citizen.

While the new Bulls boss hasn’t even had one session with his players yet, he warned that he is going to use all the knowledge he has gained coaching in Australia, France and Japan to the team’s advantage.

“I’ve picked up things in all the countries I’ve worked in and that could have a massive advantage for the Bulls. I’ve always been known as a pragmatic coach but you have to be. The reality is that a certain formula works and I believe if someone calls you a pragmatic coach, whatever the sport, then you are on the right track. You look at coaches like Jose Mourinho, by nature he likes to be ordered and structured and he’s had exceptional success,” White said.

The irony of landing up at Loftus Versfeld is not lost on White, who was often at loggerheads with the union and their players while he was Springbok coach.

“It was not my favourite place for no other reason than we had our differences at that stage, when I was just a young guy trying to do my best for the Springboks. But I’ve never underestimated the passion and loyalty of their supporters and the Bulls have always been a top provincial side,” White said.

The well-travelled 56-year-old has set about transforming the struggling Bulls, with signings such as Springboks Marcel van der Merwe and Gio Aplon confirmed this week, while former coach Pote Human has been let go.

White is not done yet, though, and on Friday the return of former Springbok flank Arno Botha was announced.

“Arno is a proud son of Loftus, and there is no doubt that the fans will be ecstatic to see him back. He started his rugby journey here and played all of his junior rugby in blue. There were big things expected from him from a young age, and he has now grown into a complete and well-balanced loosie. It’s no secret that we are in the process of building something very special at Loftus, and Arno is going to be a huge part of that,” White said.

Keshav Maharaj is not satisfied to be merely South Africa’s number one spinner in Test cricket; the 30-year-old said on Thursday that he wants to play in all three formats. And he even dreams of captaining the Proteas to World Cup glory one day.

While Maharaj is pretty much unchallenged for his place in the Test team, having taken 110 wickets in 30 matches, he has only played seven ODIs and is yet to be picked for a T20 International. Three of those appearances came in the whitewash of Australia earlier this year though and the left-arm spinner performed tidily enough to cement himself in the national selectors’ plans, being chosen for the abandoned limited-overs tour of India. It was Maharaj’s form for the Dolphins as they won the Momentum One-Day Cup that forced his return to the Green and Gold as he ended as the fourth-highest wicket-taker with 16 wickets, despite only playing seven out of the 10 games, and had the best average in the competition – 14.68.

“Since making my ODI debut in England in 2017, I had to work on my plan for limited-overs cricket and I went back to franchise cricket and worked as hard as I could. So it was a really good experience to be drafted back into the ODI side. Being boxed as a red-ball cricketer has been extremely frustrating for me because I was branded as a white-ball bowler early in my career!

“To be handed another opportunity for the Proteas was like making my debut again. I want to play for South Africa in all three formats, but for T20 I need to bide my time in the ODI side first. I want South Africa to be number one in all formats and if that happens then I must be doing my job. Then I just want to do better the next season,” Maharaj said on Thursday.

And if one enquires about the Durban-born star’s long-term goals then the drive and ambition of a champion competitor becomes clear.

“When I asked what I had to do to get back in the ODI side, I was told that apart from my bowling I had to work on my batting as well. I was fortunate to have extra responsibility as the Dolphins captain, it made me want to be able to bail the team out of any situation or put them in a winning position, and I managed to get some scores last season. I know I have a lot more ability with the bat than the numbers suggest.

“In India last year I tasted what it was like to get an international fifty. The biggest problem was getting the first one and hopefully now I can move to being a bowling all-rounder or even a fully-fledged all-rounder, able to contribute evenly with ball and bat. And I really enjoy captaincy, I really want to lead the Proteas, that’s my dream. Raising the World Cup trophy was a childhood dream of mine,” Maharaj said.

Richard Pybus has been one of the real legends of domestic coaching in South Africa, having won nine trophies with the Titans and Cape Cobras franchises, but he began his career guiding lowly Border into a position where they were competitive against the big guns of local cricket. So when the former Pakistan and West Indies coach says plans to change the domestic structure, increasing the top level to 12 provincial teams, are not addressing the true problems in South African cricket then his views should be considered seriously.

“It’s a terrible idea,” Pybus said of the plan to do away with the six franchises at the top table of domestic cricket. “They are trying to fix the wrong thing. The issue is the administration of the game and not franchise cricket. Why are Cricket South Africa in their current financial position? They should review that. Why pull apart a highly effective system, the same sort of model that has given Australia consistent success?

“The issue is not our model but getting our administration right. Our problems are not about the franchise game, that’s giving us what is needed, which is incredible competition, the best 66 players in the country going up against each other. The franchise system was directly responsible and supported our national team getting to number one. We want strength versus excellence, not to dilute that,” Pybus told The Citizen from his house in Hermanus.

The 55-year-old Pybus said the domestic system needed to reflect the differences between the high-performance needs of the Proteas pipeline and those of growing the game.

“Our cricket has lots of layers and it needs to be clearer whether those layers serve the recreational game or the Proteas, with a lot of layers not really serving either of them. A lot of our cricket should not be professional and any changes should be about strengthening that level. We have a brilliant, multi-cultural game and it also needs to be inclusive.

“The development programme does have some issues, there are not enough players coming from Black communities, but that has nothing to do with franchise cricket. There are geographical and historical reasons for those issues. Coaching is also a real problem and it will take a generation to transform that because we have pushed all our senior coaches out, that intellectual capital is gone,” Pybus said.