Ken Borland

Johannes Veerman produced inspired golf on the final day of the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City on Sunday, but even then his eventual victory had a touch of the miraculous about it, with the 32-year-old himself expressing his amazement.

Veerman shot a 69, one of just four sub-70 rounds on the final day, to finish on five-under-par 283. He was in the tie for seventh, five shots off the lead, at the end of the third round. But no-one else on that score or above him on the leaderboard was able to shoot less than 71 and Veerman came from nowhere to claim the prestigious title.

“What just happened?!” Veerman said in his press conference after lifting the famous crystal trophy on the 18^th green, presented by tournament patron Gary Player. “My mindset after posting five-under was that at best I would have to go out again for a playoff, but I was thunderstruck when I heard I didn’t have to.

“I really look up to players like Max Homa and Mackenzie Hughes, and Gary Player of course, to be in the same field as them is a dream come true because I respect them so much. But to actually win, you have to pinch me, how did I do that? It’s crazy!,” Veerman said.

For the player born in Orange County, California, the win is his first outside of Europe, having won the Czech Masters in 2021. Veerman has always prioritised playing on the DP World Tour, and his journey towards fulfilling all his golfing dreams has been a fascinating one.

The son of a Dutch father who worked for a multinational oil and gas company, Veerman lived his early life in the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, China, England and the United States. His mother is Indonesian.

He went to university at Tulsa and at Texas A&M, but he is one of the few American golfers who clearly have a global view of the game. Homa, who was the defending champion, is another.

But it was while the family were living in Berkshire, England that Veerman’s life changed. He was nine years old when father Jan took him to watch the PGA Championship at Wentworth. Johannes was enchanted and immediately decided to take up golf.

His talent for the game was obvious and he returned to the U.S. to play college golf. Except being a professional golfer was still not his first love. Following a mishap when a firework accident nearly blew off his thumb, Veerman was so impressed by the work of the surgeons who repaired the damage that he decided he wanted to be a doctor.

That only changed when his fellow pre-med students at Texas A&M said playing golf would surely be a better option.

And that ‘career change’ certainly seems to have paid off as Veerman now has his second professional victory, and a famous title that carried a winner’s cheque of more than a million dollars.

“To win Africa’s Major – I can now put that on my Instagram and call it the fifth Major! – means a lot because my family has sacrificed so much for me. My wife sold her business and now we travel with a one and a two-year-old, so it’s a lot of work being on the road all year. So this is really satisfying.

“I’ve played the majority of my golf in Europe and Asia but my first priority has been the European Tour. So I remember Ernie Els and Retief Goosen winning here, I was a very big fan of them and always wondered what it would be like playing on this iconic course.

“I was kinda lurking all week, so to walk away with the trophy feels amazing. I could not believe how big the grandstands were on 18 when I played a practice round and the crowds have been amazing. I think it helps that I have a name like ‘Johannes Veerman’, so it feels a bit like home advantage!

“This week has also been great fun with all the functions and meeting really fun people. We had a fireworks show, dinner in the bush and just so much fun because the support of the crowds is amazing and just the whole environment is great.

“Sun City compares with anywhere in the world and the Gary Player Country Club is absolutely a premier golf course. All the greens look like clovers so there are little nooks. Nowhere else in the world do you get that plus the wind and heat we’ve had every day. They call this place the ‘Caddy Graveyard’ because the wind just switches all the time.

“The closing stretch especially is so difficult, and I knew that if I could par my way in then I might have a chance. It’s an incredible test of golf and you have to stay so patient. It tests every club in your game, but not just your equipment, also your attitude and your grit.

Although the married father of two clearly wants to experience the wonderful whole wide world of golf, he admits that eventually a return home to play on the U.S. PGA Tour is clearly a goal.

“I could play on the DP World Tour forever and I love playing in Europe, and of course now in South Africa. I’m obviously coming back to Sun Coty, forever at this point, and winning this tournament is the biggest bang at the start of the season that I could have hoped for.

“But I would also love to play on the PGA Tour and this is such a big step in that direction. All my family are over in the U.S. and with decisions about daycare and schools coming up in a few years, obviously I would be nearer to my kids if I play in America,” Veerman said.

Having won the toughest Nedbank Golf Challenge since 1990 when David Frost claimed his second title with a four-under-par tally of 284, the outlook is good for Veerman, who has now gone to the top of the Race to Dubai rankings, to finish in the top-10 of the order of merit and gain a PGA Tour card.

Springbok captain Siya Kolisi manned up to the recent problems his team have been having on the field with an heroic individual effort against the All Blacks on Saturday, so it was little surprise that he was very much in touch with his emotions after a match in which he gave so much but still ended on the losing side, thanks to a late New Zealand penalty.

The flanker dashed around the field with focused intensity on Saturday and was particularly useful at the breakdowns, doing a lot of the dirty work as he and Kwagga Smith formed a great partnership. But as much as he led from the front, Kolisi was not able to drag his team across the line as they went down 17-19.

“It definitely hurts. We prepared as well as we could, we were focused on the right now. I felt on the field that we were in there with a good chance, our set-pieces dominated. So it is really hard to lose a game like that, but we know that if we stick to our processes then the results will come.

“We wanted to stand up and fight today. We knew as a team what we are capable of and it was about making sure we played properly. New Zealand brought high speed and physicality, but I can’t fault my team – our plan worked, our structures were really good. So I don’t really know what went wrong,” Kolisi said after the match.

Many critics have pointed to the Springboks’ decision, after they had taken a 17-16 lead into the last 10 minutes, to kick front-foot ball away, including two up-and-unders from the All Blacks’ 22, as the reason for their defeat. Kolisi said this was the choice of the players and he stood by the tactic.

“The players made that call, we decided to stick to the game-plan. That’s how we know how to play and we will never change from that. And it had been working all day,” Kolisi said.

The personal touch is something all businesses should strive for and building contacts between people is one of the key elements of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Pro-Am Series.

That the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series has built up considerable networks and lives up to its mantra of being Always Connected has been borne out this year by the arrival of another company famous for their customer experience and engagement skills – Momentum Metropolitan – as one of the series partners.

This week’s event at Humewood Golf Club will be the fourth with Momentum as partners and Carel Bosman, the financial services company’s Head of Sponsorships and Events, has been delighted with how well their involvement is going.

“We only recently entered the Vodacom Origins of Golf fold and it really is the ideal sporting platform, we’re already starting to engage and build connectivity with so many people. The series is pretty unique in that you have amateurs playing with the professionals and it has been incredibly positive for us being involved from the start of the season.

“We’ve been sending different internal stakeholders from our various business units to play in the events, and it has been a very positive experience for us as a corporate. We will certainly be looking to do more as Vodacom and Commissioner Thomas Abt and the Sunshine Tour are putting together some stunning properties. The Vodacom Origins of Golf Series has been going for so long, since 2004, and we feel privileged to be involved,” Bosman said.

Momentum’s investment in cricket, especially the women’s game, has been one of the success stories of the South African sports industry space, and Bosman had nothing but praise for Vodacom’s tremendous achievements with the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series.

“The Vodacom Origins of Golf Series has been a success for so long that you simply have to acknowledge what Vodacom have done. It’s been wonderful to meet their team at a regional level and sport really needs sponsors to do these sort of things. And Vodacom have obviously seen value in their strategy to stay involved for so long. What they have done has been incredible and hats off to them, long may it continue!” Bosman said.

The Sharks have failed so far to touch the great heights they reached at the start of the year in SuperRugby, but when they host the Pumas in a Currie Cup fixture on Friday night at Kings Park Stadium in Durban, they will be looking to start the new competition with a clean slate and with a slick performance.

The Sharks scraped to a one-point win over Griquas, a team similar to the Pumas, in their last outing, but they won 42-19 in Nelspruit in their match there earlier this season, which will give them some confidence.

Apart from that disappointing display, and a loss to the champion Bulls at Loftus Versfeld, the Sharks’ graph has generally been upwards, however, and Springbok Thomas du Toit makes his return to the front row after injury to provide a timely boost to a scrum that has struggled at times.

The Pumas finished second-bottom on the Super Rugby Unlocked log with their only victory coming in week two against Griquas in Kimberley, but they were unfortunate not to collect more points. They have some big, heavy hitters and an enterprising backline means they are not easy to defend against. The Pumas were particularly impressive in a narrow defeat to the powerhouse Stormers, so the Sharks will know it could be a very close contest.

The Pumas have been hard hit in recent weeks though by players testing positive for Covid-19, and that could affect their cohesion.

“Obviously our long-term goal is to win the Currie Cup, but we’re not going to win it if we don’t perform well, so our focus is just on the job at hand this weekend. It’s an opportunity for us to perform at our optimum, we’ve done really well at home this season, we’re unbeaten at Kings Park.

“The Pumas ran the Bulls close though in the second half last weekend and there are no easy games in this competition as we saw against Griquas. We are four points behind on the log and there are just six games in the Currie Cup, so it’s important that we start building log points and to get five against the Pumas would be great,” Sharks coach Sean Everitt said.

Teams

Sharks: Manie Libbok, Yaw Penxe, Jeremy Ward (c), Marius Louw, Madosh Tambwe, Curwin Bosch, Sanele Nohamba, Thembelani Bholi, JJ van der Mescht, Dylan Richardson, Hyron Andrews, Ruben van Heerden, Thomas du Toit, Kerron van Vuuren, Ox Nche. REPLACEMENTS – Daniel Jooste, Khwezi Mona, Hanro Jacobs, Zain Davids, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Cameron Wright, Werner Kok, Sbu Nkosi.

Pumas: Devon Williams; Morné Joubert, Erich Cronjé, Ali Mgijima, Etienne Taljaard; Theo Boshoff, Ginter Smuts; Francois Kleinhans, Phumzile Maqondwana, Daniel Maartens; Pieter Janse van Vuren ©, Darrien Landsberg; Ruan Kramer, HP van Schoor. Liam Hendriks. Bench: Marko Janse van Rensburg, Wikus Groenewald, Brandon Valentyn, Heath Backhouse, Chriswill September ,Wayne van der Bank, Tapiwa Mafura, Dewald Maritz.

Kickoff: 7pm.