The WGSA 72 Hole Teams Championship is an annual highlight for our best amateur ladies. GNGU has a great track record at this tournament, winning it for the last 7 (seven) years consecutively.
The team’s successful run was however halted due to Kim Williams, ‘Nobby’ Dlamini and PGA Pro Johanna Buitendag turning professional after the 2013 season, together with team stalwarts like Eugenie Clack, Magda Kruger, Crystal Cooper and top local junior Catherine Lau not being available this year we sent a very inexperienced team to East London GC.
Our A, B and C teams competed in the top section for the Swiss Team Trophy in an excellently organized tournament on a fantastic par 73 course with beautiful weather. From a team perspective, apart from the goal to regain the Swiss Trophy, our teams managed to ensure a triple onslaught again next year by avoiding the dreaded last place which would have led them to be regulated to the B-Division. We are proud of our teams and also some outstanding individual performances.
The A team – Carrie Park, 16 year old Danielle du Toit and Marne Clack – performed admirably to beat one of the pre-tournament favourites, WP, led by WGSA Player of the Year Cara Gorlei. They were placed 3rd with a combined counting score of +3.
GNGU A-Team. (Photograph taken from the WGSA facebook page.)
The B team – Ruzanne van der Walt, Larissa du Preez and Chantelle Hefer (the GNGU captain) came in 8th at +45, beating amongst others, last year’s Swiss Trophy winners Kwazulu-Natal as well as Southern Cape and Mpumalanga.
The C team – Karin Watts, Marike Reyneke and 16 year old Mercedes Kreissel ensured our C team has continued participation in the A Division next year by finishing 11th.
Outstanding individual performances
Carrie Park came third overall with an excellent sub-par performance (-2) with scores of 74-72-73-71 (290).
Danielle du Toit, with scores of 77-74-77-69 (+5, 297) came tied seventh. Her 69 on the last day, including 5 birdies on the last nine (31), was the low round of the tournament and also tied the East London GC Ladies course record, now jointly held with former #1 and Protea player Lara Weinstein.
Hats off also to Mercedes Kreissel who came into the C team as a replacement but finished overall T41 with 324 – 6th of our nine players.
Team scores
587 Gauteng North A 151 Carrie Park 74 Danielle Du Toit 77; 146 Carrie Park 72 Danielle Du Toit 74; 150 Carrie Park 73 Marne Clack 77; 140 Danielle Du Toit 69 Carrie Park 71
629 Gauteng North B 154 Ruzanne Van der Walt 75 Larissa Du Preez 79; 156 Larissa Du Preez 77 Ruzanne Van der Walt 79; 162 Ruzanne Van der Walt 80 Larissa Du Preez 82; 157 Larissa Du Preez 76 Ruzanne Van der Walt 81
652 Gauteng North C 163 Marike Reyneke 81 Mercedes Kreissel 82; 158 Mercedes Kreissel 75 Marike Reyneke 83; 164 Karin Watts 82 Marike Reyneke 82; 167 Karin Watts 82 Mercedes Kreissel 85
Individual scores
3 -2 Carrie Park 74 72 73 71 – 290
T7 +5 Danielle Du Toit 77 74 77 69 – 297
T22 +22 Larissa Du Preez 79 77 82 76 – 314
T26 +23 Ruzanne vd Walt 75 79 80 81 – 315
T29 +24 Marne Clack 78 78 77 83 – 316
T41 +32 Mercedes Kreissel 82 75 82 85 – 324
T50 +40 Marike Reyneke 81 83 82 86 – 332
T52 +41 Karin Watts 85 84 82 82 – 333
57 +47 Chantelle Hefer 86 86 83 84 – 339
Overall competition
Swiss Team trophy
1. Gauteng Central A
2. Gauteng Central B
3. Gauteng North A
4. Western Province A
5. Boland A
Challenge Trophy
1. Border
2. Ekurhuleni A
3. Gauteng Central C
(Article compiled by Dirk du Toit and edited by M Hendrikse)