GOLF
Andy Capostagno
The field for the 2001 Nedbank Golf Challenge was announced in Johannesburg this week. There are four new names for the 21st playing of the tournament that used to be and in most circles still is known as ”The Million Dollar”.
Among the quartet are two of this year’s four major winners, Retief Goosen and David Toms. The other two, Tiger Woods (United States Masters) and David Duval (British Open) have opted not to come and for obvious reasons there will be doubt up until the week of the tournament about the participation of the two US players, Toms and Jim Furyk.
For Goosen it is a case of better late than never. His fans in South Africa have been clamouring for his inclusion in this tournament for many years now, but his position in the world rankings counted against him.
His US Open win at Southern Hills has changed all that and his 10th-place finish at last week’s German Masters has both consolidated his spot at the top of the European Order of Merit and pushed him to the rarefied heights of 13th in the world rankings.
For Toms, the chance to play is part of the icing on the cake for winning the USPGA at the Atlanta Athletic Club in August. Like Goosen in June, Toms was expected to buckle on the final nine and his decision not to go for the 18th green with his second shot seemed to confirm that expectation.
But Toms ignored the cries of ”wimp!” and ”go for it!”, hit his wedge to four feet and holed the putt. It was a decision regarded now as one of the smartest plays in major history. Before the putt went in it was regarded as a form of surrender.
The other two rookies are Canada’s Mike Weir and Ireland’s Padraig Harrington. Weir is the second-best left-handed golfer in the world (after Phil Mickelson), with a putting stroke that has proved itself under pressure. Harrington is the bookish-looking fellow who peppers the flag with his long irons and never has a bad week.
Ernie Els is looking to make it three in a row at Sun City, and while no one can be written off in a field of 12, his greatest rival may be Sergio Garcia. The Spaniard had some unkind things to say about the greens when he played in the 1999 tournament, but he has grown up since then and is the form golfer in the world right now. Andy Capostagno
It would be nice if we could concentrate on the final round of Currie Cup Super Eight matches due to be played this weekend, what with six teams still in the hunt for the semifinals and all. Unfortunately, however, as the domestic rugby season draws to a close, foot-shooting season is upon us again.
On Sunday Springbok coach Harry Viljoen will host a getting-to-know-you-all-over-again party at King’s Park in Durban. Present will be either 34, 35 or 36 players hoping to make the cut for the end of season tour to Europe and the United States. The actual number depends on which of the several lists of names you care to believe.
To quote Dan Retief, writing for SuperRugby.co.za, ”Take the recent ‘announcement’ of a squad of 35 players … the list that appears on Sarfu’s own website consists of 34 players and includes scrumhalf Neil de Kock, while a list that has been circulated to the rugby writers of various newspapers consists of 36 players and includes Werner Swanepoel, Robbie Fleck and Kleinjan Tromp.
”Western Province scrumhalf De Kock is not in this latter group. It is claimed that the second list emanated from within the Springbok business unit.”
By Wednesday the SARFU website had 36 names, but still no official announcement had been made. It is, of course, only a training squad. The final touring squad of 26 names will be announced after the Currie Cup semifinals next week. But it is a handy guide to who is in and who is out in the national coach’s thinking, and as ever there are some curious anomalies.
Just two flyhalves (Braam van Straaten and Louis Koen) and two scrumhalves (Joost van der Westhuizen and Werner Swanepoel) have been selected. Only Van der Westhuizen was part of the 32-man squad selected by Viljoen on May 12 this year. His three flyhalves then were Butch James, Gaffie du Toit and Francois Swart. Neil de Kock was selected ahead of Swanepoel at scrumhalf.
James is unavailable through injury and suspension, the others have simply fallen out of favour, along with Japie Mulder, de Wet Barry, Rassie Erasmus, Etienne Fynn and Lawrence Sephaka. It is not a crime to change your mind, of course, but to change a third of the squad in the course of five months seems a little excessive, nonetheless.
There seems to have been a paradigm shift in Viljoen’s thinking since he took over the reins a year ago. In his first Test in charge, against Argentina, he played Percy Montgomery at flyhalf and banned the players from tactical kicking. Three Tests later Van Straaten was in at flyhalf in order to make sure the Springboks kicked their goals.
Van Straaten was deemed surplus to requirements in May and duly signed to play for Leeds. By the end of the Tri-Nations he was playing inside centre for the national side and rumour has it that he recently turned down a three-year SARFU contract on a point of principal. If this is true it is nice to know that there are still men of honour playing the game in this country.
Van Straaten, it should be noted, is not even playing flyhalf for Western Province any more. Gert Smal has moved him to inside centre to take the ball up and kick goals, with Chris Rossouw at flyhalf. You might remember that Rossouw was on last year’s Bok tour, along with the fine Province lock pair of Hottie Louw and Quinton Davids. None of them is in the latest squad.
Which should give some extra spice to Saturday’s encounter between Province and the Sharks in Durban. The Sharks need to win to earn a home semifinal, Province are unbeaten. Province went some way to fulfilling their potential in a nine-try romp against Free State last week and they can actually afford to lose and still top the log.
In the circumstances a Sharks win is the likely outcome, which leaves the Lions, Cheetahs, Falcons and Pumas fighting it out for the last two spots. If the Pumas beat the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Friday night they can still qualify, although such a result would probably only allow the Falcons in through the back door, assuming they can beat Griquas at Kempton Park.
If the Sharks lose, the Lions could grab a home semifinal by beating the Bulls at Ellis Park. The most likely semifinal draw is Province v Cheetahs in Cape Town, and Sharks v Lions in Durban.