Well to be honest, neither had I.

21° 06′ S, 55° 36′ E are the map coordinates of the capital city Saint-Denis. For most South Africans, probably a speck on a map some 600 km west of Madagascar. (Right next to Mauritius) This island in the Indian Ocean will host the World Amateur Championships during 2016. 

This an overseas department of France sent a delegation from the Island and they were here in Pretoria contesting a friendly match against some of our brightest players on Woodhill CC. They sent 4 men and 2 women to contest 3 rounds of varied match-play. Continue reading →

CAPE TOWN, 11 October 2015 – Ross Sinclair staved off a spirited final round challenge from KwaZulu-Natal’s Luke Mayo to lift the Lion of Africa Junior Open title on Sunday.

The 18-year-old Gauteng North golfer fired rounds of 69 and 70 at Clovelly Country Club to claim a one stroke victory on five-under-par 139.

Sinclair had a jumbled start with three birdies and two bogeys, but after a dropping a third shot at 10, the reigning Nomads SA Boys U-19 Match Play champion turned the tide with three birdies on the trot from 14.

A birdie at 18 secured him a share of the first round lead with Western Province star Luca Filippi.

The Centurion player gained a considerable advantage with hat-trick of birdies at the start of the second round to go six under. Continue reading →

TRINITY, Texas (11 October 2015) – Four of South Africa’s top ranked amateur golfers will be pursuing the country’s first success in the Spirit International, which tees off at the renowned Whispering Pines Golf Club in Trinity, Texas on Monday.

The quartet tasked with flying the South African flag in the eighth edition of this prestigious event are Teaghan Gauche from Gauteng North  and Gauteng’s Ivanna Samu, Kaleigh Telfer Matthew Spacey. Continue reading →

NAIROBI, Kenya (12 October 2015) – Gauteng North’s Jason Smith, Jade Buitendag and new cap Andre Nel from Southern Cape and North West’s Aubrey Beckley are eager to launch South Africa’s title defence in the African Amateur Golf Teams Championship in Kenya on Monday. Continue reading →

PARYS (9 October 2015) – Gaugeng North’s Keegan McLachlan pulled a cat out of the bag with an eagle on the 17th hole and a remarkable recovery on 18 to snatch a one-shot victory in the Glacier Junior Series National Final at Vaal de Grace on Friday.

McLachlan shot a final round even-par 72 to stave off a charging David Meyers and Marco Steyn to win on 13-under-par 203.

Meyers’ impressive 69 took him to 12-under and Steyn, who came roaring up the leaderboard with a 66, took third on 11-under. Continue reading →

PARYS (8 October 2015) – Keegan McLachlan’s rounds of 65 and 66 were impressive enough for any day’s golf, but they were made even more exceptional by the changing weather conditions the Gauteng North junior had to master on the opening day of the Glacier Junior Series National Final at Vaal de Grace on Thursday. Continue reading →

GNGU IPT A and B teams with Alet Crous (Back left) Manager of the B-side and Pat Roets (Second from the right, back row) Manager of the A-side

The IPT tournament format is built in the following manner. Monday sees the conventional flag raising ceremony and welcoming dinner. The teams meet each other and the rules are decided and communicated. Tuesday is the first tournament day. The morning the teams play foursomes stroke play and the afternoon leg sees individual stroke play. Using the previous year’s match-play results the teams are divided into an A-division and a B-division. The A and B divisions are then sub-divided into an A and B flight depending on how well your team plays the stroke play leg on the first day. The participating teams them compete foursomes match play and singles match play for three consecutive days against all the teams in their flight.

This year both the GNGU A and B sides made it into the A flight of the A division. Both teams thus had the opportunity to win the IPT outright. One of the main contributors was our own Danielle du Toit who won the individual stroke play event on one under par after a count out.

Our opponents were both the A and B teams of Central Gauteng. (It is the first time in the history of the event that only two provinces were represented in the A flight of the A division) Central however were sporting particularly impressive teams with no less than 8 of their team members listed in the top twenty of the SA women’s senior rankings.

Unfortunately our A team lost to Central’s B team and our B team lost to Central’s A team during the first round. This set the tone for the remainder of the match play component with Central A and B taking the first and second spots with the GNGU contingent settling for third and fourth spots respectively.

We fielded relatively novice sides in terms of experience although our teams were probably on average slightly older the most other teams. All in all the result was better than expected and the future looks promising for our ladies.