Andy Capostagno golf
If the organisers of the Nedbank Golf Challenge got it wrong, the Southern African PGA has, eventually, got it right. Walking around Sun City last week it was impossible to escape the conclusion that a million-dollar brand had been thrown away on a corporate whim when the Million Dollar changed its name.
But this week at Royal Cape, in addition to the second annual triumphal march of the biggest name in the field for the R2-million Vodacom Players’ Championship, one Theodore Ernest Els, it’s time to say welcome back to an old friend. Nine years ago the PGA allowed a sponsor to kick a great brand into touch, this year it has, through a curious set of circumstances, brought back the Sunshine Tour to South Africa.
Actually, for the aficionados, the Sunshine Tour has been back for a few months now, ever since the umbrella sponsor Vodacom decided to reduce its commitment to the tour. But the Players’ Championship marks the beginning of the summer section of the tour, a time when purses grow exponentially and Johnny Foreigner comes to push his sticky fingers into the billfold.
Which is a little unkind to at least three megastars who will bring the crowds through the gates at Royal Cape this week. Els, Nick Price and Darren Clarke have shown their loyalty to the local tour on numerous occasions and none of the three actually needs the R316?000 on offer for first place.
Clarke picked up more than three times that amount for finishing 11th out of 12 at Sun City last week. But the Northern Irishman loves South Africa and rumour has it that his appearance fee at the same tournament last year included the run of a spectacular Clifton apartment for the festive season.
If so, the organisers got their money’s worth out of Clarke for it took two extra holes to deny him the title at Royal Cape. Clarke and Nic Henning were tied through 72 holes and at the first hole of the play-off the former missed a very makeable putt for the title.
Maybe he knew that Henning needed it more and he was a generous loser as the Wanderers member holed a 2m putt, albeit through the tradesman’s entrance, for the most significant win of his life.
As for Els, he will probably remember this tournament last year as one long procession of handshakes. He had finally “got the monkey off my back” by winning the Million Dollar, and Cape Town came out to celebrate.
One thing that may have escaped the galleries that followed Els was his innate sportsmanship. Recognising the fact that it is only human nature to get up and go to the next hole when the man you are watching has finished putting, Els took it upon himself to mark his ball and cede the honour on a regular basis to his playing partners.
Chris Davison, a former winner of the event who will be attempting yet another comeback from injury this year, was in Els’s three ball and saw it at first hand.
He said: “Ernie didn’t have to do that. He did it as a mark of respect for the people he was playing with. That’s the thing about Ernie, he may be a megastar, but his personality has never changed. He’s a generous guy and if he hadn’t done what he did he might have ended up winning the tournament instead of finishing a shot behind Henning and Clarke.”
Talking of a shot behind, that’s where Price finished at Sun City last week after yet another par-busting week at the Gary Player Country Club. He is 43 now, has what he calls “another two years in the major hunt”, and would dearly love to finish the year with the one thing that hasn’t come his way this year, a title.
If, as seems likely, Els is weighed down by the expectations of the crowd and $2-million in his back pocket, and Clarke cannot find a consistent swing, Price may have his wish of an early Christmas present. He may even be persuaded to sing, “You are my Sunshine, my only Sunshine…”