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 Alfred Dunhill Championship is a prestige golf tournament co-hosted by Southern Africa’s Sunshine Tour and the European Tour, held every summer at the famous Leopard Creek estate outside Malelane. The best part of covering this event is that I get to stay at River Cottage, one of the finest bed and breakfast guesthouses I have had the pleasure of frequenting.

The “River” it is named after is the famous Crocodile River on the southern border of the Kruger National Park and River Cottage is right on the riverside, with an elevated view on to South Africa’s most famous game reserve.

Apart from the spacious units, which are fully equipped for those wanting to self-cater, River Cottage also has beautiful gardens which attract a wealth of birdlife that is slightly different to that found along the river. It’s not often you find a place that combines a sense of wilderness in the pristine bushveld with such comfort.

I have a wonderful start to every day at River Cottage, getting up early to do a circuit of the gardens and the riverfront before sitting down for the sumptuous breakfast and then heading off to work at the golf.

The delicious prospect of what denizens of Kruger Park are down at the river is exciting enough, but first one wanders through the trees of the garden and past some grassy areas that the seedeaters love, collecting a host of Lowveld species. The owners of River Cottage are clearly lovers of the botanical as well, with name tags on the flora and they have planted typical bushveld trees, including even a Baobab and a Mopane, well south of their natural range.

They are not the only inhabitants of further north to be found at River Cottage. While walking along the bank overlooking the river, I became aware of a distinctive purring call coming from high in the trees on the garden side.

It’s a call that always gives me a cheesy grin because it belongs to the African Mourning Dove, one of my favourite Columbids. It is a more typical bird of the restcamps way further north in Kruger Park, such as Satara, Letaba, Mopani and Shingwedzi, with the southern edge of its range usually being north of the bottom camps like Skukuza and Lower Sabie.

African Mourning Dove do love riverine woodland and they are also very fond of Ana Trees, so perhaps it was not too surprising to see one all the way down at the Crocodile River, but it is certainly the furthest south I have ever come across this species.

The River Cottage gardens also attract Brownheaded Parrots to the taller trees and a fruiting fig tree close to the main house hid a few in the canopy, as always they were tough to see but their screeching calls gave them away.

The lapa and sun-deck next to the swimming pool are ideal spots to keep a close watch on the Crocodile River and Great White and Little Egret, Blacksmith Plover, African Jacana, Blackwinged Stilt, Grey, Squacco and Greenbacked Heron, Egyptian and Spurwinged Goose, African Pied Wagtail, Reed and Whitebreasted Cormorant, Spottedbacked and Thickbilled Weaver, Lesser Striped Swallow, Woodland, Pied and Malachite Kingfisher, African Spoonbill, Sacred Ibis, Water Dikkop, African Darter, African Fish Eagle and Natal Francolin are all usually present and easily spotted along the banks.

 

Even less common birds like the Horus Swift, Lesser Masked Weaver and Redfaced Cisticola, which pops up in the reedbeds and other riverside vegetation with its bright silky-white chest and loud, piercing call, are often seen.

Nile Crocodiles are almost always present along this stretch of river that bears their name, while Waterbuck, African Elephant and Impala are usually hanging around.

A troop of Banded Mongoose sometimes ventures down from the surrounding woodland and there is even one family living on the property, while it is always interesting watching the Nile Monitors go about their predatory business either in or around the water.

As the riverine trees thin out heading away from the water, the grass gets longer and rank and a different suite of birds can be seen.

Dusky Flycatcher, Orangebreasted Bush Shrike, Paradise Flycatcher, Arrowmarked Babbler, Whitebellied and Collared Sunbird, Spectacled Weaver and Plumcoloured Starling still prefer some trees around, many of them hosting a resident Southern Tree Agama, but the more scrubby areas attract birds like Whitewinged Widow, Blue Waxbill, Bronze Mannikin, Redbilled Quelea, Yellowfronted Canary and Burchell’s Coucal.

There is probably no finer spot to enjoy the creatures of the Kruger National Park from outside the reserve.

Where is River Cottage?

Sightings List

Kurrichane Thrush

Speckled Mousebird

Dusky Flycatcher

Great White Egret

Blacksmith Plover

Striped Skink

African Jacana

Blackwinged Stilt

Grey Heron

Egyptian Goose

African Pied Wagtail

Reed Cormorant

Spottedbacked Weaver

Horus Swift

Nile Crocodile

Lesser Striped Swallow

Waterbuck

Thickbilled Weaver

Orangebreasted Bush Shrike

Woodland Kingfisher

Yellowbilled Kite

Redeyed Dove

Whitewinged Widow

Forktailed Drongo

Squacco Heron

Greenbacked Heron

African Palm Swift

Glossy Starling

Brownheaded Parrot

Banded Mongoose

Blackeyed Bulbul

Paradise Flycatcher

African Spoonbill

Sacred Ibis

Malachite Kingfisher

Water Dikkop

Laughing Dove

Whitebreasted Cormorant

Southern Tree Agama

African Elephant

Hadeda Ibis

Arrowmarked Babbler

Blue Waxbill

Whiterumped Swift

African Darter

Pied Kingfisher

Impala

Bronze Mannikin

Grey Lourie

Common Myna

African Fish Eagle

Little Egret

Lesser Masked Weaver

Redbilled Quelea

Redfaced Cisticola

Whitebellied Sunbird

Yellowfronted Canary

African Mourning Dove

Spectacled Weaver

Collared Sunbird

Burchell’s Coucal

Helmeted Guineafowl

Plumcoloured Starling

Spurwinged Goose

Nile Monitor

Natal Francolin

 

Christiaan Basson is one of the more consistent performers on the Sunshine Tour so his blistering eight-under-par 64 to claim the lead in the first round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek is not a total shock, but the 33-year-old from Cape Town is battling his own mediocre record in co-sanctioned events with the European Tour.

Basson has played in 30 previous European Tour tournaments, making the cut in just 14 of them, with just a single top-10 finish, in the 2013 South African Open at Glendower. He has gone low in the first round a few times in co-sanctioned events, including last year’s Alfred Dunhill Championship when he opened with a pair of 69s before fading on the weekend with rounds of 74 and 75.

“It’s a funny game and you never know when you’re going to get it right, so when you get it going you must capitalise on it. I think I need to stick with the same game plan – I just tried to hit fairways and tried to play for the right areas of the greens – it worked well, so why change it?” Basson said after his brilliant round at the prestigious course alongside the Crocodile River.

Basson is three shots ahead of the chasing pack on five-under-par which includes three-time champion Charl Schwartzel.

Schwartzel could not finish his round due to a thunderstorm that stopped play at 5.26pm on Thursday, but is looking in ominous form as he collected seven birdies through 17 holes, and missed a couple of makeable putts as well.

Mark Williams of Zimbabwe and Englishman Matt Ford, both of whom collected eagles – on the par-four fourth and par-five 13^th holes respectively- are the other golfers tied for second.

Niclas Fasth of Sweden, playing his 500^th European Tour event (the 31^st golfer to reach the mark) and Joost Luiten of the Netherlands are amongst the large group of golfers on four-under-par, while 2008 champion Richard Sterne is on three-under after 17 holes.

Another former champion, Pablo Martin, the winner of back-to-back titles in 2009/10, was rapidly climbing up the leaderboard as he moved to six-under-par through 15 holes. The Spaniard had started on the 10^th, but by the time he walked off the ninth green he was practically weeping as he closed with three successive bogeys to drop down into the group tied for 12^th.

Englishman Jeff Inglis had a similar story, starting with five successive birdies but then dropping two shots at the par-four eighth and picking up further bogeys at the 13^th, 16^th and 17^th holes to also finish on three-under.

Louis Oosthuizen started on the 10^th and birdied the par-four first hole to go to five-under-par and a share of the lead, but was then derailed by a double-bogey seven on the second, eventually finishing on a two-under-par 70, while defending champion Branden Grace was a stroke further back.

 

 

For the first time in nearly 25 years, a matchplay tournament will feature on the Sunshine Tour programme when the South African Matchplay Championship is held at Zwartkop Country Club from Tuesday to Sunday.

Zwartkop is a short, 6,442-metre course in Centurion that is ideally suited to matchplay golf. It hosted a famous exhibition match in 1966 between Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus.

As Dale Hayes, the popular Yogi-Bear like figure synonymous with South African golf and the owner/director of Zwartkop, points out, the course may not be long, but the Hennops River winding through it presents a good mental challenge, especially for matchplay. Several of the smallish greens are fringed by the river, meaning shots that are either too short or too long are in danger of a watery grave.

“Top-class golfers hit the ball so far these days that Zwartkop is not long enough to be a great test of strokeplay golf. But when Handa [the sponsors] contacted me about hosting an event and they asked what format we should have, I straight away said matchplay.

“Because of the river, there’s water on 10 of the holes, with seven of those coming into play for the pros. So there’s a lot of risk or reward involved and a golfer needs to decide if he’s going to be aggressive or not. If he’s standing over a shot and is first to go, he’s got to decide whether to have a go or play it safe.

“You need a lot of thinking around this golf course – you can’t just step up and smash driver. Every shot requires a lot of thought and if you get too clever, then the water will be waiting for you,” Hayes said.

While this weekend’s HSBC Champions in China will obviously attract the biggest names in South African golf, Hayes says he is still “very pleased” with the quality of the field.

Jbe Kruger, the diminutive golfer with the heart of a Staffie who is third on the Asian Tour Order of Merit, will headline the 128-man field and can expect a stiff challenge from the likes of reigning SA Open champion Hennie Otto, former champion James Kingston, veteran Des Terblanche and three-time European Tour winner Darren Fichardt.

Hayes is expecting a highly entertaining show from these top golfers.

“Matchplay is the most popular form of golf; it’s what you play against your buddies. Spectators can come and see some special golf. The golfers will be aggressive and will go for it and there should be lots of birdies and eagles, which you don’t see in strokeplay,” Hayes said.

The prize pool is R2 million and the winner will walk away with R300,000 as well as valuable Order of Merit points, while even first-round losers take away R4,700 from the event.

The support from the sponsor’s founder, Dr Haruhisa Handa’s ISPS – the International Sports Promotion Society – means there will also be a disabled component to the tournament.

Sixteen disabled golfers, including some from the On Course Foundation, which gives seriously injured members of the British Armed Forces the opportunity to play golf, will play in a concurrent tournament.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-10-29-golf-first-matchplay-championship-in-25-years-on-sunshine-tour/#.WbZ5CbIjHIU