Andy CapostagnoGolf
The local golf tour winds down this week with the Stenham Swazi Open, an amalgam of amateur and professional golf which, rather confusingly, will be held at the Wild Coast Sun, some 700km from Swaziland. The reason for the venue switch is that bane of greenkeepers’ lives, fungus. The greens at the Royal Swazi Sun have been ravaged by fungus and so a new venue had to be found.
Sun International agreed to the title of the tournament remaining unchanged and, greens permitting, it will be back in Mbabane next year. The question is whether the Southern African Tour will be back at a Sun International venue. There were times, not so many years ago, when the tour threatened to become one large exhibition for the casino operator, but after last week’s Dimension Data Pro-Am at Sun City there are a few disgruntled customers.
For one thing, Sun City was 40% overbooked for the tournament. All four of its hotels were heaving; so were the timeshare properties which used to house the staff. The reason, apparently, was that in addition to a golf tournament the complex was also hosting a pigeon race last weekend.
So in addition to the familiar yardage charts, a few golfers had to take compasses with them in order to find their way from some unusual bed and breakfast venues to Sun City in the dark for pre-6am tee times. It goes without saying that this was not the case for Lee and John Westwood, the father and son combination who won the tournament in some comfort.
Westwood Snr is a 14-handicap golfer of the kind to be found in thousands of golf clubs around the world. He is a 52-year-old maths teacher who walks with a pronounced limp due to contracting polio at an early age. Westwood Jnr has just moved up from seventh to sixth in the world rankings due to his victory. The only limp he is likely to suffer is that conferred by a bulging wallet.
Their victory in the team competition (Lee won the individual) illustrates perfectly what makes golf such a unique sport. In what other pastime can two generations compete equally? Bowls maybe, polo, certainly not cricket – although George Gunn senior and junior once opened the batting for Nottinghamshire together.
There will probably not be a father/son winning combination at the Wild Coast this week. There is also, in comparison to the past three weeks, a distinct absence of big names. Mark McNulty will be there, but there will be no Nick Price, Retief Goosen or any of the European stars we have recently become used to.
Instead the focus will change to the Order of Merit, where three of the field have a chance to nail down the number one spot, which earns worldwide privileges. The current leader is Darren Fichardt, who would have already been celebrating had he won the South African Open a fortnight ago. His only two real rivals are Nic Henning, the winner of the Players Championship at Royal Cape, and Tjaart van der Walt who has finished fifth in the past three tournaments and looks ready for a win.
After an opening 69 at Sun City Fichardt went 78, 76, 74 and in the wind that batters the Wild Coast at least 364 days of the year, the 24-year-old’s flying elbow swing is unlikely to withstand the pressure. Henning has the game to win, but the most impressive of the three is Van der Walt, a regular performer on the old Nike Tour in the United States with an old head on young shoulders.
Van der Walt will enjoy the greens which, despite soaking rain that has semi- waterlogged some of the fairways, remain quick and true. The key to victory will be ball striking, however, especially on the 13th, a par three where the direction of the wind dictates which club to choose to hit across a deep ravine fed by a waterfall. On day one it could be wedge, on day two, driver. The golfer who can best cope with such mind-boggling changes will win this week.