Gardening on the golf course
The golf section would like to thank Martin Coetzee from Lasher Tools for a well-organised day and the generous sponsorship that went with it, for if it were not for our fantastic sponsors, we would certainly struggle to fill the course with players
Lasher Tools, the sponsor of Saturday’s tournament, are the leading manufacturers of high quality and tough gardening, agriculture, construction, DIY and mining equipment in South Africa.
They are also the only local manufacturers of hand tools in the country. A mining engineers company of Blane & Co founded the African Shovel Company in 1928 in Barlow Street, Germiston, where the first shovel was made. The manufacture of shovels was followed by picks, spades, forks, gardening and mining tools, with a work force of 64 from Sheffield to over 600 employees currently. The company was importing all their steel till 1939, when ISCOR was founded and took over as the main supplier.
In 1950, they opened a second factory at what is today known as Sigma Road in Germiston. In 1971, the Norton Group took a controlling interest in African Shovel Company and was renamed Lasher Tools.
The word Lasher is derived from the task of removing rock and rubble, which is called “lashing”, and the Scottish miners who came to South Africa at the turn of the century were called Lashers. The business started to grow and in 1973 the factory was opened in Ladysmith, which enabled them to supply the growing local market and still be able to export to the UK, Europe, the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and to the Pacific and Indian Islands. The group Ussher Inventions, founded in 1913 and manufacturers of the first wheelbarrow in 1922, took over Lasher Tools in 1989, making it the largest manufacture of non-mechanical tools in Africa. Today, Lasher Tools has a range of over 1200 products.
The club’s local weather experts, with all the latest technology available at their disposal, were predicting a wet weekend for the golfers, which would have been more suited to gardening using a wide range of high quality tools from Lasher.
This, however, did not occur and we were blessed with a perfect day of braaivleis, golf, sunny skies and Lasher Tools to assist the more agricultural players. There were teams of four players that had a range of axes to grind, some that were handpicked, others were raked together, and a few that did plenty of spade work to get a game, and some that simply took the wrong fork.
The four-ball of Leon Steenkamp, Cassie Rautenbach, Jan Pretorius and Kurt Swoboda went “hoe, hoe” all the way home to a fine win with 89 points.
This saw some of their handicaps being pruned by a sharp set of shears expertly used by the handicapper. The second team home of Heinz Habermann, Belinda Meyer, Adelene and Bransby Niemach, some wearing long hose and fittings as well as a sprinkler of good fortune, hammered down the final couple of holes to finish with a well-played 88 points.
Third place went to Gia Bozza, Luke Cockraft, George Ashi and Shimanga Shezi with a finely chiselled 87 points. The ‘most golf’ – who were seen slashing in the rough with machetes trying to bolster their score, but unfortunately ended up throwing in the trowel – were Stuart Hanlon, Ettienne de Pindray, Roy Gibbons and Steve Dixon.
There were eight two-club winners, with Bransby winning the ‘longest drive’ on the 1st, and Leon Steenkamp and Ntokozo Cebekhulu taking the ‘nearest the pin’ prizes at the 11th and 12th respectively. The impromptu braai was well supported after golf and I believe that a crowbar was needed to pry some of the regulars loose from the festivities. Well done to all the winners over the weekend and don’t forget that the ‘100 Club’ draw will be held on Friday at 6.30pm. There will be a supper of succulent slow-roasted pork served with a delicious apple sauce, a variety of spring vegetables, and malva pudding with either ice cream or custard, all for just R75 a person.
The golf section would like to thank Martin Coetzee from Lasher Tools for a well-organised day and the generous sponsorship that went with it, for if it were not for our fantastic sponsors, we would certainly struggle to fill the course with players. Have a great week and see you at the club.
FORTHCOMING ATTRACTIONS:
OCTOBER 1 – SELO PILLAY GOLF DAY; OCTOBER 2 – MORTIMER TOYOTA LEAGUE (BRING & BRAAI AFTER); OCTOBER 8 – CMD GOLF DAY; OCTOBER 15 – LADYSMITH CONSTRUCTION MONTHLY MUG; OCTOBER 22 – LADYSMITH HIGH SCHOOL GOLF DAY.
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