Uneven putting surfaces and a back- to-front layout add a bit of spice to the Pilanesberg courses
Andy Capostagno
If you put half a dozen professional golfers in a room together they will come out in agreement on only one issue. If a golf course is too hard it destroys the game as a spectacle for, as everyone knows, Joe Soap only watches the game to see his heroes making birdies and eagles. Hogwash.
Two years ago conditions in the Open Championship at Carnoustie conspired to make it one of the most memorable majors in years. The wind howled, the scores ballooned and Sergio Garcia shot two rounds in the high 80s to miss the cut by a country mile.
Last week in East London the wind howled, the scores ballooned and Darren Clarke missed the cut by a Border kilometre. The players complained about blind shots, the hills and, most of all, the greens. But, as is inevitable in a professional event, a cut was made, and the South African Open champion was crowned. Take a bow, Mark McNulty.
After his round McNulty was keen to point out what matters when conditions are extreme; you have to concentrate. Many of the players, most of them Europeans, seemed to believe that concentration was impossible on such a course in such conditions and on grainy greens. Hogwash.
The net result was a worthy champion, a runner-up (Justin Rose) who is on the road to stardom, and a final day of gripping complexity. With seven holes to go any one of a dozen players could still win and one by one they fell by the wayside.
Visiting British commentator Richard Boxall described East London’s greens as “like putting on a Brillo pad”, in which case it would have been interesting to see what he would have made of this week’s greens. The Sunshine Tour has moved on to Sun City despite the fact that a natural disaster has attacked the putting surfaces at the Gary Player Country Club.
Rumour has it that, following last year’s Nedbank Challenge, a couple of people in charge of course maintenance took a well-deserved holiday. When they got back the greens, relaid for the Million Dollar Doubled, had died. As a result the greens for this week’s Dimension Data Pro-Am have become “browns”.
Some desperate work by Steven Shearer and his staff has resuscitated a few putting surfaces, but many have more sand than grass on them and, especially at the fourth, seventh and 13th holes it will be difficult to find playable pin positions for the players. However, as with East London last week, it is the same for everyone and concentration will again be the vital ingredient.
The first two rounds will be shared between the Lost City and the Gary
Player Country Club. The latter will host the last two days. For Lee Westwood, Nick Price, Darren Clarke, McNulty and a few other Million Dollar veterans it may seem less familiar than usual, even taking into account the state of the greens.
That’s because Jeremy Ord and the boys from Di-Data have decided that the course will be played back to front, largely because there is more room for hospitality around the ninth and 10th holes than there is around the 18th. And if there is one thing that this tournament has become justly famous for, it’s hospitality.
What the change means for the players is that the whole tournament could be decided on the final hole, the magnificent par-five ninth where the prospect of an eagle or a bogey is always there, given a forward tee position. If it works, and there is no reason to believe it won’t, it could be the shape of things to come for the Nedbank Challenge.