Umdoni stumble in league start
Mid SCH Local Sport | Eight matches went down the last hole.
Umdoni Park Golf Club went down narrowly to host Port Shepstone Country Club in the opening round of the 2024 Southern KZN Handicap Golf League.
They got off to a wonderful start, winning the morning greensomes 3-1, but came unstuck in the afternoon as local knowledge came to the fore for Port Shepstone.
In the end, Umdoni lost 7,5-4,5 but, on another day, it could have been a different result.
In the morning, Mervyn Perry and Anthony Visser beat Theo van Rooyen and Gerald Koch 4/2. Brendon Allison and Wikus van Kraayenburg beat Albert dos Santos and Noah Thomas 4/3.
Steve Swain and Anthony Phillips edged out Janse van Rensburg brothers, Hendrik and Johann, 2-up. Jacques Kirstein and Quinton Allison lost to Kirk Larsen and Gavin van Wyk 1-down.
The singles just didn’t go Umdoni’s way despite some valiant efforts.
Visser lost to Koch 1-down. Perry also lost on the last hole to Van Rooyen.
Van Kraayenburg may have been thinking about what fish were biting when he lost 4/3 to Dos Santos. Brendon Allison stops the bleeding for a while with a 2-up win over Thomas.
But it was only a short while as Phillips lost 2-down to Hendrik Janse van Rensburg. Swain went down 2/1 to Johann Janse van Rensburg.
Quinton Allison fought hard for a half with Van Wyk. Kirstein lost 1-down to matchplay master Larsen.
That’s a lot of matches that went down the last hole – eight in total, with Umdoni losing six of them. It would have made for entertaining TV viewing.
Port Shepstone took the singles 6,5-1,5 and thus the match 7,5-4,5. They now top the log as, in the other game played on the day, Southbroom defeated Margate 7-5.
Two-time defending champions, Selborne Park, had a bye, but no doubt captain Adrian van Vuuren will have kept an eye on the results.
The next fixture is at Southbroom on May 19. Margate play Selborne Park and Southbroom play Port Shepstone. Umdoni Park have a bye.
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