Doctor shares his passion for SA and golf
"This game has taught me so much about myself and about life," Dr Mncube.
The South African (SA) Open took place at the Glendower Golf Club last week.
Dr Stephen Mncube (75), a struggle veteran, enjoyed watching the first round of the BWM SA Open hosted by Ekurhuleni.
He sat relaxing beside the tee box at the club’s par-three sixth hole as he reminisced about being a caddie at Glendower Golf Club in the 1950s.
Dr Mncube is now one of the club’s most illustrious members.
“I started out as a caddie when I was just 10 years old. I was a thin little chap with nice, clean short pants. I was so small, the caddie master would make sure I got the lightest bag,” he said.
As he continued watching the the players, he said Bobby Locke was around in those days but he never caddied for him.
“We would get paid half a crown (two shillings and sixpence) for the round, which would pay for my transport to and from school every day.
“Because I could speak good English, I’d sometimes charm the ‘madams’ and they’d give me an extra shilling, which was quite a bit of money in those days,” he said.
Dr Mncube said his father had a few resources and couldn’t offer him much, but he always encouraged him to ‘develop his brain’ as his father would put it.
“While other young boys would look around for half-smoked cigarettes, I’d hunt for thrown-out books in the garbage. I was able to establish a nice little library at home,” he said.
The doctor and his family lived in what is now called Hurlyvale in Edenvale.
However, when the Group Areas Act was enforced, his family was forced to move to Orlando.
“Living there and being exposed to men like Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisuli, I became politicised. As an angry young man I ran away to the refugee camps in Africa when I was about 19 or 20,” he said.
Dr Mncube then obtained a scholarship to study in America at Syracuse University in New York where he would earn his doctorate in Information Science.
He spent 30 years studying and working in America until 1994 when his friend Mr Nelson Mandela asked him to return to SA.
“A country which I left as an angry young man but now a country which I hold out so much hope for. We need unity, and a sport like golf helps bring us together. I’m so pleased to have made a little bit of a difference to this country. God has been good to me and blessed me. I’m also so pleased to have had a lifelong love affair with golf. Thinking back, it was when I was a caddie way back here at Glendower that my journey started. This game has taught me so much about myself and about life,” said Dr Mncube as he applauded enthusiastically as Jaco Van Zyl hit a pin-point tee-shot into the heart of the green at the sixth hole.
