Gavin Sole leads the way at Fish River Interprov
There was no mention of hanging up his boots. None at all.
AT last, the KwaZulu-Natal golf team is back in the A division. Where many feel it belongs.
This comes after victory in the B division of the South African Interprovinvial golf tournament held at Fish River Sun last week.
At Fish River Sun, the team led by evergreen captain Gavin Sole (46) and managed by the imperturbable Ivan Curlewis, put together a dominant performance that saw KZN win six out of six and clinch the trophy.
“The team has been fantastic, great bunch of guys,” said Sole. “Ivan as the manager was superb. Nothing seems to phase him. His calmness plays a big role, huge in fact,” he said.
While there is no such thing as an easy IPT, this one was fairly comfortable.
The team had a lead after the foursomes in every game, and put this to full effect with even better play in the afternoon rounds.
The only time KZN was facing a ‘break point’ (to borrow a tennis expression) was early on in the singles on Wednesday afternoon when momentum shifted against them.
It didn’t last long and soon KZN’s quality proved to be too good for North West and hosts Border.
Gavin had one of his better tournaments, he felt, in terms of ball striking and putting.
On day three he erased a four hole deficit in his singles for an important half in his singles.
Overall, he won all his foursomes games and lost only one singles, this on the final day.
By then he knew his team had won, and he admitted to easing up on the accelerator a touch.
In a way it’s a pity KZN was not in the A division this year, as it’s not a stretch to suggest an overall win could have been possible.
Perhaps next year. Provided of course the bulk of the team remains as amateurs.
KZN golf seems to go in cycles and so unfortunately B division hard yards seem to be bogey for the course at times.
For a year at the very least, those ghosts have been banished, and it’s time to look forward.
“It’s in Johannesburg next year,” said Sole. “Let’s hope we don’t lose too many players.”
Did the Big Fish just say ‘we’? That’s interesting… is he perhaps pressing Ctrl Z (as in UNDO) on his alleged retirement plans?
“Retirement? I’m sorry what?”
Results:
KZN beat Limpopo 11,5-0,5; Free State 9-3; Mpumalanga 10,5-1,5; Border 8-4; North West 7,5-4,5; Eastern Province 6,5-5,5.
Points (out of nine): Malcolm Mitchell 8,25; Clayton Mansfield 8,25; Louis Albertse 8; Gavin Sole 7,5; Greg McKay 6; Matt Saulez 5,5; Jason Broomhead 5,5; Siyanda Mwandla 4.
Overall team score was 53/72 which is a dominant 74 percent of total points possible.
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