Ken Borland

It was a case of the early birds getting the worms on the first day of the Hornbill Classic Golf Tournament at Kruger Park Lodge Golf Club on Friday, as the Kranspoort four-ball claimed opening-round honours in the two-day event in the Lowveld.

The Kranspoort team, who travelled from the Mpumalanga highveld to participate, teed off early when the wind was not up yet and really hit their straps, especially their lady golfers, as they tallied 89 points in the four-ball alliance format that is being used for the highly popular tournament.

Kirstin Kemp, who plays off a 35 handicap, failed to score on only one hole, while Michelle Higgo, playing off a 29, also played very well. Seventeen-handicapper Theo van Niekerk led the side, using his 15 years of experience on the Gary Player designed course which he describes as his favourite, while Kevin Kemp (23 handicap) also enjoyed a successful day.

Kemp admitted starting early had been a benefit because the wind definitely picked up through the day as there was a foreboding change in weather from the Lowveld’s usual clear blue skies at this time of year to overcast and cooler conditions.

He related how, early in the shotgun start round, he had hit a seven-iron on the 124-metre par-three seventh hole, and when he returned later in the day to attack the same green from the 144-metre 16^th tee he had hit driver in a successful attempt to find the putting surface, such was the impact of the blustering wind.

There was a tie on points for third and second place, with the Fairbridges team counting out Sabie River Sun for second after they both finished on 87 points.

Fairbridges are a team of attorneys who travelled all the way from Cape Town to participate, such is the allure of this tournament. Bok and Max Groeneveld were joined by Conrad Fraser and Sharjah Jonsson, and they readily admitted that one of their pars was recorded when an errant approach was deflected on to the green by a passing Pajero!

Sabie River Sun was the team they counted out into third place and it was clearly a good day for the four-ball of Darren Lane, Brendon Steele, Luke Baumer and Wayne Smith as they said the tremendous hospitality of the Kruger Park Lodge was the highlight of their round.

The Hornbill Classic concludes on Saturday on a Kruger Park Lodge Golf Course that has been universally praised for its superb quality.

HAZYVIEW, Mpumalanga (3 September, 2026) – The 29th edition of the Hornbill Classic will be held at the Kruger Park Lodge on Friday and Saturday, with the leading golf tournament in the Lowveld once again attracting numerous golfers from all over South Africa.

The two-day tournament is a four-ball alliance, played on the marvellous Kruger Park Lodge Golf Course, which is a Legacy Hotels and Resorts property. The field of 128 golfers will be tackling the 6100m, par-72 course with an array of prizes on offer thanks to the generosity of the tournament’s many sponsors.

The highlight in terms of the prize list has to be the ingenious Omoda C5 crossover vehicle on offer as the hole-in-one prize for the 194m par-three fifth hole, sponsored by Jaecoo Mbombela.

With spring well underway in the Lowveld, Kruger Park Lodge Golf Club representative Pierre van Nieuwenhuizen says the course, which was designed by golfing legend Gary Player back in 1992, is in superb condition for a weekend of quality, competitive golf.

“The course is playing magnificently well at the moment and the one thing that has really come on in leaps and bounds are the greens. Historically they have been quite slow, but now they are quick because we have removed a lot of the thatching build-up on the greens.

“We had a bit of rain not so long ago, so the course is soft and with the greens playing so well, I think this weekend’s layout will be the best the Hornbill Classic golfers will have played on, they’re going to be blown out of the water,” Van Nieuwenhuizen said this week.

Apart from the wonderful hole-in-one prize from Jaecoo Mbombela, successful golfers will get way more than just a pat on the back, with wonderful prizes on offer from suppliers like Srixon, Cleveland, Global Golf, most of the Legacy properties around the country and safari companies in the Lowveld, including elephant interactions.

Other sponsors involved in the tournament are MET, STN, CSG and Hi-Tec.

Defending champions Pieter Burger, the Kruger Park Lodge GC club captain, and the Srixon and Cleveland team will be back to defend their title. Renowned entertainer Piet Pompies, who is the MC and chief entertainment at the two prizegiving dinners, has also entered a four-ball.

The challenge from the rest of the field will be anything but lame however, as winning the Hornbill Classic, which was started in 1997 by Frikkie Levendal and has only not been held in 2020 when Covid struck, is high up on the bucket list of many Lowveld golfers and others from as far afield as Cape Town.

Kruger Park Lodge will also be unveiling a new fleet of golf carts on the opening day of the Hornbill Classic.

T20 franchise cricket has changed the life of more than one cricketer and the IPL, who held their mega auction at the start of the week, has done that more than most. But Betway SA20 Commissioner Graeme Smith wants South Africa’s franchise T20 tournament to do that and revitalise the game in the country he captained with such distinction.

The Indian Premier League is obviously the benchmark all other leagues aspire to, and their auction saw record prices being paid for the next tournament being held from March 14 next year, with the 10 franchises spending more than £60 million overall.

Smith wants the SA20 to continue growing in stature such that it is considered to be part of the top group of T20 tournaments, and the fact that so many South Africans and overseas players who feature in the SA20 are being picked up by the IPL as well, bodes well for the stature of the January/February competition.

Proteas stars Heinrich Klaasen, Marco Jansen (the most expensive overseas player), Quinton de Kock, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Gerald Coetzee, David Miller, Aiden Markram, Faf du Plessis and Lungi Ngidi have all been signed up by the IPL, as well as lesser-known players like Lizaad Williams, Kwena Maphaka, Matthew Breetzke, Donovan Ferreira, Ryan Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs, who have shone in the SA20 and thereby attracted the attention of the Indian franchise owners who all have teams in the IPL too.

Amongst the highest-paid overseas stars who were bought at the IPL auction are players like Josh Buttler, Jofra Archer, Moeen Ali, Noor Ahmad and Rashid Khan, who have all featured regularly in the SA20.

“From an SA20 perspective, it’s lovely to see the platform provided by our tournament to these players and there are a significant number of South African players in the top money-earners list,” Smith told sportsboom.com in an exclusive interview at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Monday.

“Last year we produced the most players going to the IPL of all the overseas countries, and that shows the growth of our franchise cricket. And that includes a few youngsters, those are the good stories of people’s lives being changed, like Kwena Maphaka going to Rajasthan Royals for £142 000.

“So the exposure from the SA20 is very important but we also hope that the tournament keeps the Proteas strong. They haven’t had a great period in T20 cricket since making the World Cup final, but the IPL auction and the SA20 tournament show that there is still some incredible talent there.

“There is a lot of franchise cricket played around the world and we want to elevate SA20 so that it is one of the No.1 picks. There is like a Tier One of these T20 franchise tournaments and we certainly want to be up there. I think we are establishing ourselves as one of the Tier One events.

“The feedback from the overseas players has been incredible. They love coming to South Africa because of the crowds, they say the tournament is well-run and, most importantly, they say it provides extremely competitive cricket. Two years into the event, there is much higher confidence that we can pull it off and we hope it just keeps developing,” Smith said.

Smith has high hopes that the SA20 will also keep developing South African domestic talent into world-beating international stars. Never mind being able to get them on the phone, the likes of Tristan Luus, an SA U19 all-rounder, can sit in the Mumbai Indians changeroom and chat face-to-face with Ben Stokes about the game. Likewise, Breetzke, who has just set off on his international career, will be chewing the ear off of fellow top-order batsman Kane Williamson in the Durban Super Giants locker-room.

“With our rookie draft and our introduction of the SA20 Schools competition, we’re going to expose a lot of youngsters. Plus the franchises are unbelievable when it comes to their attention to their pipeline and talent. They bring great expertise in terms of the support staff.

“Maybe before SA20, our players were not developing in the right way, they were becoming fully professional late in the day and you were still trying to educate them at national team level. But playing against the best shows you where you need to improve and what it takes to play at that level. They can sit and chat with a Ben Stokes or a Kane Williamson, and you’ll have international physios telling them that these are the levels they need to reach physically,” Smith said.

The bottom line is always commercial, however, and the SA20 continues to be the second-biggest money-spinner for CSA after the Proteas men. That has enabled things like the SA20 Schools competition, an annual camp for U19 girls and an umpire exchange with The Hundred in England, to be introduced.

There was more good news for the SA20 on the commercial front on Monday as they announced a new partnership with DP World, the global smart logistics and supply chain company.

BALLITO (KwaZulu-Natal) – Jacob Oakley improved on his best ever round on the Sunshine Tour for the second tournament in a row as the Englishman fired an excellent eight-under-par 63 on Wednesday to lead the SunBet Challenge hosted by Sun Sibaya after the first round at Umhlali Country Club.

Oakley shot a wonderful 65 on the first day of the Vodacom Origins of Golf event at Sishen Golf Club on September 20, and even though he then posted rounds of 75 and 74, his finish of tied-18^th was still his best ever on the Sunshine Tour.

That 65 gave him a one-shot lead after the first round, but on Wednesday his 63 saw him open up a two-stroke gap on the well-travelled duo of Trevor Fisher Jnr and Alex Haindl.

The 26-year-old Oakley was also the first to tee-off on the first hole at Umhlali on Wednesday and no-one was able to better his haul of eight birdies. He started slowly with three pars, before three birdies in four holes led him to three-under at the turn. Oakley collected back-to-back birdies on the 12^th and 13^th holes, and then finished brilliantly with three successive birdies, making threes on the 16^th and 17^th holes and then a two on the 182m closing hole.

Having claimed the last of his five Sunshine Tour victories in August 2021 at the Vodacom Origins of Golf Sishen event, Haindl may have wondered when his next appearance at the top of a leaderboard would happen, finishing 93^rd and 160^th on the Order of Merit delivered by The Courier Guy since then. He has not made a cut in five events this season.

But the Schoeman Park golfer was inspired on Wednesday, collecting seven birdies by the 16^th hole, but then dropping his only shot on the 18^th.

Fisher Jnr began his round on the 10^th and reached the turn on three-under. He then birdied the first hole but dropped a shot at the par-four second. But an eagle on the par-five fifth was followed by a birdie on his last hole, the par-four ninth, as he joined Haindl in the tie for second.

Astin Arthur, the winner of the Western Province, Indian Ocean and Southern Cape amateur opens this year and the runner-up in the South African Strokeplay Championship, was another surprise packet on Wednesday as he shot a five-under-par 66 to be in the tie for fourth place on four-under-par.

Luke Jerling, who made eight birdies but also three bogeys, and Malcolm Mitchell also shot 66s.