Southern KZN golfers wrap up season with a win

AFTER a slow, and at times worrying, start to the season, the Southern KwaZulu-Natal golf team finished strongly to end fifth out of nine teams in the premier league for the year.

Their last game of the season was played at Southbroom last Sunday, against Royal Durban.

With on-and-off drizzle, the home team closed out the game 9-3.

With a few players unavailable, some reserves were drafted in and they played well.

Robert Mavundla was perhaps the player of the day, winning his foursomes in the morning with David Rush, and then trouncing his opposite number in the singles in the afternoon, 6/5.

Looking back, it wasn’t a terrible season overall.

The team lost three games – all away: to Toti, Mount Edgecombe and Durban CC.

They won three of their homes games – against Cotswold Downs, Durban CC ‘2’ and Royal Durban.

They halved two – against Kloof (away) and Umhlali (home).

However, the losses were quite heavy, and for the team to be serious contenders again, consistency in selection is vital.

At no stage during the season did Southerns put out the same team as the game before.

There were various reasons for this, but the main one was probably work commitments in a very busy season.

No one played in all eight games. Chris Poole would have, but had qualified for the Sanlam Cancer Challenge regional finals and so missed out.

Elvis Khawula played in seven games, and ironically had better results when he played higher up the order.

David Rush played seven games, missing out on one due to an arm injury.

Sean Baker, based in Kokstad, put in some major miles and is to be commended on his commitment to the games he was available for.

Jan McDermott and Jarrod van Wyk produced some good golf before work commitments saw them having to decline the opportunity to play.

Gavin Sole filled in on occasion, as did Gary Purtell, Sipho Shusha, Douglas Sima and Derick Zolyomi.

Altaaf Bux played one game before turning professional.

The find of the season was definitely Graham Fabricius, who produced at least four singles wins in his debut season. He ended up playing six games altogether.

The ‘Welcome Back Where Have You Been?’ award went to ‘Super Sub’ Gareth Olivant, who ironically perhaps, ended up playing six of the eight games, often ‘taking one for the team’ as a sacrificial lamb up the order.

Still, by the end of the season, his rusty swing was starting to look quite decent again.

The central league team narrowly missed out on winning the C league, again.

Their team comprised Sipho Shusha, Patrick Mavundla, Ronnie Mtshaka, Douglas Sima, Robert Mavundla, Simon Lee, Gary Purtell, Derick Zolyomi, Sbu Ntozakhe and Robert Sikobi.

The players can now look forward to the Southern KZN Open, which will be played at Margate CC on Sunday, November 15.