Happy New Year.

2024 A New Golfing Year

A Recap of my 2023 golfing year.

2023 has come and gone, and it turned out to be a slow year and even of less golf for me. Even though I didn’t get to play as much golf as I would have wanted to, there were still some incredible highlights to my golf year. The first one was the DiData at Fancourt early in the year that I wrote about in my, A Late Start blog.

This was followed by a line-up of Womens golf events that are always such a pleasure to be a part of. Starting off with the ITU Golf Wear Ladies event hosted by Emperors Palace at Glendower. It’s always a great fun event when the golf ladies get together and the event was just that.

Home Course

The golf year can never start fully without a game on the home course, Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Course. So, I rallied my trusted bunch of ladies for a game, and of course, they were kin because who doesn’t want the Royal Experience. The new West Course layout was waiting for us, as always, it did not disappoint, with its challenges and beautiful visuals. The ladies and I were so happy to play it after the changes, and we all felt like we were playing an entirely brand new course. My favourite hole 9, par 5 was now hole 18, for some reason, this made sense to me. What a great finishing hole.

Next was one that is always a highlight for all the ladies, The Joburg Ladies Open ProAm. Once again, held at the challenging and beautiful Modderfontein Golf Club. It is always a privilege getting to play golf with the pros. This time, the format was different and allowed us to play the course with two pros, a different one for each nine. Which turned out to be fun. Not the best golf from any of us amateurs on my fourball, but still a wonderful day out on the course. A great event, in true Joburg Ladies Open fashion.

We of course know that there can never be a golf year without Golf for Good. Playing golf for charity has to be one of the most rewarding things any golfer can do. Showing up and showing support for a great cause can never get old. Doing it while out doing something you love also makes it even more special. We started off the charity golf year with the Cupcakes Of Hope Golf Day at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington East Course. My fourball consisted of my usual suspects, the dream team, the ones who show up no matter what. Golf life with these ladies is not just golf…it is love wrapped up in laughter, joy, fun, and golf. It is the perfect fourball, I would take them anywhere… If you thought I loved golf, these girls are just as obsessed. We have played through icy cold rain, blistering heat, walked fairways and hours on end on golf courses while following our favourite pro golfers at tournaments. Asking these ladies to join me on a charity mission will always be the easiest ask. on this particular day, most fun was had…again. Thank you ladies. ❤️

Flags Collected

2023’s Flag Collecting mission was definitely not what I had hoped it would be. I did manage to play and collect some of my favourite flags like, Serengeti, The River Club, Country Club Johannesburg, Glendower, Fancourt (Montagu & Outenniqua). BUT the ultimate flag collected was without a doubt Nkonyeni Golf Course in Eswatini. I finally got to play the “home” course after years of it being in my top five bucket list of courses to play. For years I got the question, “have you played Nkonyeni?” and my response was always met with silent judgement. Now I can reply “YESSS dammet”

Eswatini

Nkonyeni Golf Course

A GEM, smack bang in the middle of a bush. Situated in one of the hottest parts of the country, I was grateful that my first encounter was in winter. The invitation came from The Sunshine Tour and Eswatini FNB to play in the FNB Eswatini Challenge ProAm. There was no hesitation from me, I was finally getting to collect this flag I’ve been meaning to collect. Also getting the chance to play with the Sunshine Tour professionals is always such a welcome treat and getting paired with someone I had not played with before, is even better because one gets to know another professional and support them. My pro turned out to be the lovely and super talented Rupert kaminski winner of the 2023 SA PGA Championship.

Nkonyeni Golf Estate offers championship golf courses and 5 courses in total. Nestled on a 400-hectare private game reserve, the Estate is surrounded by mountains and a river running through it.

• The Golden Eagle Course designed by Peter Matkovich & Louis Oosthuizen.
• The Sunshine Course.
• Links & Bush Course.
• En Route 57 Course.
• The Bushveld Course.

FNB Eswatini Challenge

The FNB Eswatini Challenge is played with an interesting and unique layout, with the front 9 played on the Links course and the back 9 played on the Bushveld course. My fourball started off on the Bushveld course, and let me tell you, you will want to keep it straight. Losing 3 balls on the 1st 2 holes, I was sure my day was done. It had been a while since I lost so many balls in a short space of time. The Bushveld Course is a challenging course that winds its way through the private game reserve and proves to be the ultimate challenge. Somehow, I was still in good spirits because WOW, this course was just beautiful. My game picked up,my fourball was kind enough to look past the first few holes. It turned out to be a decent game. I enjoyed both the Bush and the Links, and I have to say, what an interesting combination. I managed to win something, going home happy and making sure to come back. Spent the next couple of days watching the tournament and supporting the pros. This was without doubt, the ultimate bucket list course. FLAG COLLECTED!

I managed to get another round in at this stunning course with some friends and the local Eswatini and Nkonyeni Pro Robert Shiba. Playing the same combination as the tournament with a slightly relaxed atmosphere, I was hoping for a better round of golf this time around. Still as tricky and challenging as before, it was great to have some sort of idea which way the course layout was going. The elements were slightly different. Summer was slowly making its appearance as the Sdvokodvo heat showed its hand. Even though it was early August, it got warm fairly quickly with our 9:30am tee time. The course was looking stunning.

By November, it was full blown summer, and the end of 2023 came with the most anticipated Golf and Giving event of the year. The Gary and Vivienne Player Invitational. Hosted at Sun City Resort at the Palace and Lost City Golf Course by nonother than Mr Gary Player himself with his long time supporters and sponsors, BMW and Rolex. This event is short of spectacular year after year.

The Sunshine Tour professionals joined by sports celebrities and business leaders gather in support of the Gary & Vivienne Player Invitational at The Lost City GolfCourse. The tour professionals play in a star-studded pro-am as part of the drive to raise funds for the Gary & Vivienne Player Foundation and its work supporting the Blair Atholl Pre-Primary School. This is the type of event where you find yourself playing a practice round with the likes of Kyle Barker and Willie Oliver just by chance of showing up on a tee box.

Friday evening after a relaxed practice round, guests make their way to the welcome dinner and draw event. This year it was held at the pool area at The Palace and as always, it was a beautifully put together. The event gave guests a chance to meet and greet each other and everyone taking part in this golf and giving weekend. The sight of Gary making an entrance with the African dancers was enough to set the tone for a fun filled weekend.

Round 1

Paired up with the very charming, sweet, very tall and extremely talented professional Caylum Boon, DP Tours Mark Casey and Sadiq Dindar. I honestly could not have asked for the nicest fourball. We set out to try and conquer the wild Lost City Golf Course, a task we all know is near impossible. The North West heat was a little kinder to me this time around. If you read my blog about the GVPI 2022 event, you will know that I almost died from heatstroke because Sun City lived up to its name that weekend. So, I was happy to see clouds and a cool breeze this time. With just 2 holes to go, in typical NW fashion the thunderstorms came in, and we had rushed back for what turned out to be a 3 hour weather delay. The team wasn’t doing too badly. We were 12 on the leaderboard. That 3 hours transformed into an unexpected Q&A with the legend himself. He opened up the floor for questions from anyone in the clubhouse, and boy, was it a treat for both professionals and amateurs. Lots of knowledge imparted coupled with tons of laughter. We did manage to go back out and finish those two holes.

The Shebeen. An African Night.

The African themed Saturday night event is always something to look forward to. Everyone makes such an effort and shows up looking stunning in their interpretation of African wear. A time to mingle, talk about the days golf and dance our bad golf away. A performance by Doctor Victor and the Rasta Rebels was the perfect night out.

Round 2

A beautiful day with blue skies, no sign of rain, and Caylum still moving to the tunes of the night before while belting out “If You Wanna be Happy” by Doctor Victor and The Rasta Rebels. 😂 We set out for a second chance of catching a few birds. The team was in high spirits, and everyone’s game seemed to have gotten an upgrade overnight. Unfortunately for us, it was too little too late. Especially with a field full of fantastic golfers who had brought their A game from the onset. Not even our Pro, who brought his A game, could save us. Personally, I played a much better game with 1 lost ball right at the end. We all felt we left so many putts hanging out there (golfers proverb) they just would not drop when they should have. Ended up 12th out 30 teams and feeling much better about our performance in Round 2 even though we didn’t move up the leaderboard. Overall, this has to be the most fulfilling weekend in charity golf, regardless of the golf outcome. It’s a win for me.

FLAG COLLECTED

The Gary & Vivienne Player Foundation raised R3 million for foundation and its beneficiary, The Blair Atholl school, which is situated in Lanseria near the Blair Atholl Golf and Equestrian Estate. The pre-primary school, which was opened by the Players in 1990, provides education to the children of local farmworkers and has now grown to educate 125 children between the ages of three and six. For over 30 years, the school has been providing education, nutrition, and medical care to underprivileged children living in the Lanseria area of Johannesburg. It is an honour and privilege to be a part of this event

I finished the year off with the Royal Johannesburg ladies fun Over 70’s vs Under 70’s competition with the under 70’s just making it against some tough competitors. As always, this bunch has to be the best group of members I’ve ever been a part of. WEST Course was looking beautiful.

Catch you on the fairways