Ken Borland

There are numerous South African golfers competing and excelling overseas, especially in Europe, these days.

And while the winning performances of the likes of Garrick Higgo and Dean Burmester on the European Tour, and Branden Grace, Higgo and Erik van Rooyen on the U.S. PGA Tour understandably hog the limelight, there are many other golfers just trying to make a living on those big tours. South Africa have seven full-time golfers on the main tour in the United States, four of which also regularly play in Europe, alongside 16 other South Africans.

Less well-known is the fact that there are six South African women’s golfers in the top 100 on the Ladies European Tour. And when one compares the prizemoney they win to their compatriots on the men’s tours, the massive pay disparities when it comes to gender become apparent.

Darren Fichardt is 99^th on the European Tour order of merit and has won more than 170 000 euro n seven tournaments this year; Stacy Bregman is 100^th on the Ladies European Tor standings and has won just over 52 500 euro in 11 events.

Even at the top end of the rankings, the story is the same. Justin Harding is 20^th in the Race to Dubai and has earned more than 610 000 euro in 19 starts; Ashleigh Buhai is 21^st on the LET and has won just 93 254 euro.

The majority of South African golfers overseas are not winning titles, they are just trying to accumulate enough money week-by-week to keep playing over there and hopefully get the breakthrough win that secures their card. That challenge is especially hard for the women: On the men’s European Tour this year there is not a single tournament that has a prize pool of less than a million euro; only nine out of 26 LET events reach that benchmark.

The two women’s majors played in Europe – the second of which, the AIG Women’s Open, is being held this weekend at Carnoustie – have a prize fund of 3.8 million euro, which would rank 12^th highest on the men’s tour.

“Playing golf overseas is an expensive sport, especially doing it week-to-week, there are huge overheads if you don’t have help. If it weren’t for my sponsor Investec, I would definitely not be able to represent the country in Europe and maybe inspire the younger generation that it is possible. And you have to go overseas to play better golf, playing against the best in the world can only improve your game.

“In the future, hopefully more youngsters from South Africa can make a good living from golf. It’s a tough sport and a lot of girls are intimidated to play it. We want to make it a sport for everyone and to show that we definitely need to get more women watching us play. But to do that we need more media exposure, it has to be in your face for people to notice,” Bregman told The Citizen.

Of course, the argument that the men enjoy such large paydays because they attract greater viewership and more sponsorship will be made. But part of the reason for their bigger viewership figures is that the men’s game enjoys greater promotion, while not as much effort is made to explain just how skilful women’s golfers are, not relying so much on power games.

For instance, research has shown that women golfers are more accurate from 120 yards in, but those are the sort of in-depth stats that coverage of their sport does not employ to the same extent as the men.

“Our only hope of seeing the gap in prizemoney close is for people to see how good our product is. We should actually be paid the same because we are playing the same courses. We might not have the same power, and somehow that does not seem to have the same pull when it comes to viewership, but we just don’t play golf the same way the top men do.

“It’s about creating awareness for potential sponsors and I definitely think the skill factor should be highlighted. The average golfer plays a totally different game to the men’s pros, but I think the better men’s amateur golfers can relate more to the women’s game. I think our game does have more skill and the more men that watch us play will hopefully lead to things changing,” Bregman says.

But analyses suggest that even if women are at the forefront of public attention and viewership figures, they still end up learning less. According to the Wall Street Journal, in the three years after winning the 2015 World Cup, the U.S. women’s soccer team generated more revenue than the men’s team. But their earnings did not rise, leading to a landmark lawsuit that tackled the gender pay gap. A judge ruled, however, that because the women’s team had previously negotiated a pay deal that was weighted more towards fixed income than perfomrance bonuses, they could only sue for equal working conditions and they came to a settlement with the U.S. Soccer Federation.

Locally, Investec have been at the forefront of efforts to create more transparency around prizemoney in golf and have been pushing for sponsors to support women’s golf so that the sport can follow tennis and athletics in ensuring that there is no major gap in earnings between the top male and female stars.

Cricket South Africa acting CEO Pholetsi Moseki declared his delight on Monday night as fast bowlers Anrich Nortje and Shabnim Ismail were named as CSA’s men’s and women’s players of the year.

Ismail won the award for a second time, following her triumph in 2015, and joins Marizanne Kapp (twice) and Dane van Niekerk (three times) as the only multiple winners of the main women’s award.

Nortje claimed the Player of the Year honours just a season after being named Newcomer of the Year, the first player to achieve this feat.

“Genuine fast bowling remains one of the great and thrilling sights of our game and we are indeed blessed to continue to produce world leaders in this demanding skill. Anrich and Shabnim have set the highest standards that we expect from our icon Proteas players.

“Anrich’s international career to date has been remarkable. In the space of a year he has gone from being named our International Newcomer of the Year to our overall Player of the Year – an incredible achievement. The pandemic has restricted him to just 10 Test matches to date in which he has taken 39 wickets, including three five-wicket hauls, and his strike rate of 48.50 is comfortably within the world’s leading bowlers.

“Shabnim is the fastest bowler on the women’s international circuit, and she has been the leader of our Proteas attack for a long time now. She is the only South African to have taken 100 wickets in the T20 International format and she recently passed the significant landmark of 150 wickets in ODI cricket. She has played a huge role in enabling our Proteas to break into the top group of countries,” Moseki said in a statement released after the virtual awards were announced on social media.

Nortje was also voted Test Cricketer of the Year, SA Fans’ Player of the Year and shared the Players’ Player of the Year honour with Aiden Markram, while another pace bowler, Wiaan Mulder, was given the Delivery of the Year award for his dismissal of Kusal Mendis, caught by Rassie van der Dussen (who was named the ODI Cricketer of the Year), in the second Test against Sri Lanka.

Ismail also enjoyed a feast of awards, claiming the T20 Cricketer of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year prizes.

Lizelle Lee (ODI Cricketer of the Year) and Tabraiz Shamsi (T20 Player of the Year) were also the cream of the crop in the white-ball formats after seasons filled with runs and wickets respectively.

Adrian Holdstock was once again the Umpire of the Year.

The domestic awards were asymmetrically lopsided in favour of the Dolphins, who claimed five of the eight honours with Keshav Maharaj named both Most Valuable Player and Players’ Player of the Year.

Award winners

SA Men’s Cricketer of the Year:                                                        Anrich Nortje

SA Women’s Cricketer of the Year:                                                Shabnim Ismail

Test Cricketer of the Year:                                                                 Anrich Nortje

One-Day International Cricketer of the Year:                  Rassie van der Dussen

T20 International Cricketer of the Year:                                       Tabraiz Shamsi

Momentum Proteas One-Day International Cricketer of the Year:  Lizelle Lee

Proteas T20 International Cricketer of the Year:                        Shabnim Ismail

SA Men Players’ Player of the Year:                Aiden Markram & Anrich Nortje

SA Women’s Players’ Player of the Year:                                      Shabnim Ismail

SA Fans’ Player of the Year:                                                              Anrich Nortje

KFC Streetwise Award:                           Lizelle Lee        (innings of 132 v India)

CSA Delivery of the Year: Wiaan Mulder (v Kusal Mendis, SA v SL, 2^nd Test)

International Newcomer of the Year:                                               George Linde

Women’s International Newcomer of the Year:                              Black Day kit

South Africa Women’s coach Hilton Moreeng says he and his technical staff are having to find innovative ways to prepare the team properly as the Proteas ladies eye their return to action on January 20 when their ODI series against Pakistan starts at Kingsmead in Durban.

The three-match ODI series is followed by three T20s, with all of the matches being played at Kingsmead, as the Proteas Women play their first competitive cricket since their nailbiting ICC World T20 semifinal loss to Australia on March 5 last year.

“Being in a bubble is a challenging environment and we have to follow a new normal which is very strange for everyone, training with masks and everything. But it is an opportunity to play cricket and we are just educating the players, this is a new experience for them. Our last three days of training have been very good and our preparations are on track, I’m very happy with how things are proceeding.

“The most important thing is that the team has had a year out of action with no competitive cricket, so just to get out on the park is a big thing. We have had a lot of camps, which went well, but you can only see so much in those. I’m looking forward to a lot of youngsters now getting the opportunity to actually play. And at the end of the day we’re just playing to win,” Moreeng said on Monday.

There are at least two spots available in the batting line-up due to the absence through back injuries of captain Dane van Niekerk and the hard-hitting Chloe Tryon, even if those players coming in are just leasing their spots from two world-class performers who will be missed.

“It’s a big loss but mostly for the individual players because we don’t know when their next opportunity to play will come. But their absence does give an opportunity to others to play and that only makes the team stronger. A couple of youngsters have put their hands up in our camps. Of course competitive cricket will always be another level and rustiness will be there.

“We wanted to take our momentum from the T20 World Cup and keep improving while we build for the next World Cup [the 50-over edition in New Zealand next year], so not playing for a year has been a blow for everyone, but we can only control what we can and that’s the attitude we want the players to have. At the end of the day, safety must come first and we are just thankful for the opportunity to play,” Moreeng said.

The lure of 200 Test caps was strong, but with the excitement of getting engaged, the approach of her 30^th birthday and the new teaching job she has started, South African women’s hockey star Sulette Damons decided to call time on her illustrious career last week after making 198 appearances for the national team.

Robin van Ginkel, the new coach, recently held the second training camp of the year and the women’s national team is going to be a different, less exuberant environment without Damons, who was as loved off the field for her personality as she was respected on it, being one of the co-captains for last year’s World Cup, the most recent action the team saw.

“It would have been nice to reach 200, but I reached what I needed to and I played in three Commonwealth Games, three World Cups and an Olympic Games, so I feel like I’ve done all I could. I am getting older and I feel it’s the right time to concentrate on my career as a teacher and I’ve just got engaged as well,” Damons told Saturday Citizen.

Blessed with terrific pace and ball-skills, Damons played on the wing and scored and set up many goals for South Africa. The child of a domestic worker, Damons feasted on every opportunity that came her way and is truly an inspirational transformation success story.

Raised in the Umasizakhe township in Graaff-Reinet, Damons’ life changed when the family who employed her mother, Frances Buffels, funded her schooling at Union primary and high schools. The brilliance that lay within her DNA was soon recognised and she captained both her school and the Eastern Province hockey teams.

Damons then won a bursary to the University of Potchefstroom (Pukke) and was chosen for the SA U21 team in 2008, before making her debut for South Africa in 2010, at the World Cup in Rosario, Argentina.

She made the most dramatic of entrances into international hockey as well, scoring the winner against Spain.

“My favourite goal was most definitely the one on debut in the 2010 World Cup, my first international goal, against Spain. It was the winner and it was South Africa’s first win at the World Cup in a long time, so it was my best goal ever.

“Captain Marsha Marescia was at halfway and I just saw a gap so I started sprinting and she hit a backsticks aerial pass over everyone, and it was just me and the goalkeeper in the circle. I put my stick out and I don’t know how, but by the grace of God the ball hit it and went in!” Damons recalled.

She tended to do well in World Cups and another of her favourite memories is scoring in the 4-2 win over England in the 2014 World Cup at the Hague, in her 150^th game for South Africa.

Having qualified with a B.Ed, Damons is now teaching Grade IIIs in Bloemfontein, where her fiancé lives, at St Michaels School for Girls. Obviously they have got her involved in hockey as well, and she coaches the U13A side. A career in coaching might just lay ahead.

“Once I find my feet in coaching, maybe I’ll look to take it further. For now I still want to play a bit, for both my club and province, and hopefully I can play in the Premier Hockey League [PHL] as well,” Damons said.

Never mind her coaching expertise, Damons’ life story is enough to inspire and she says her success was all about exposure, and believes that is the answer to the all-important transformation questions facing South African hockey.

“Transformation is important because there is a lot of talent in this country and a lot of players are talented enough to reach what I did. The potential is there but it’s all about exposure, which is why the PHL is great, it allows the up-and-coming prospects to play with experienced players. We just need to make sure there are enough tournaments for these players,” Damons said.

And while the national team bombed out at the first stage of last year’s World Cup, finishing 15^th out of 16 teams, Damons said all is not doom and gloom in that department, with change afoot.

“The change of coach was good and they’ve had a good start to the year under Robin, plus there’s more staff and a bigger squad now, it’s not just the same people over and over. There’s a lot of youth in that squad so that’s very healthy, it ensures the senior players don’t feel too comfortable because now there’s more competition.

“The youngsters are hungry and want experience. The biggest issue though is finances and if you don’t have that you can’t compete and we’ll still be behind the other teams. But if they can fix that and have more training camps and tours then they will be okay. The difficulty is hockey is an amateur sport in South Africa and we need players who are willing to take unpaid leave or put their studies on hold,” Damons said.

But if stories like Damons’ – a life transformed and now she is busy transforming other lives – don’t inspire support for hockey then it is difficult to know what will.

https://citizen.co.za/sport/south-african-sport/2093593/women-in-sport-sulette-damons-transformed-hockey-now-shes-transforming-lives/