IF you had told Graham Fabricius five years ago that he would one day be wearing a winner’s medal at the South African Country Districts golf tournament he probably would have given you something akin to a blank stare, scratched his chin and politely replied ‘sorry, what?’.
Back then he was into fishing in a big way. Golf? Not so much at all.
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But the bug bit and there can’t be many golfers anywhere on the planet who get in as much golf as he does. To say he is passionate about the game is putting it mildly.
The Port Shepstone Country Club was part of KwaZulu-Natal’s eight man team that did battle for this prestigious title at water-soaked San Lameer Country Club last week.
In fact, there was so much water around Graham could have been forgiven to wanting to haul out the fishing rod again.
There was so much rain that parts of the 13th fairway were completely under water. Play was just not possible.
Play was delayed for two days and then, when the weather finally cleared, the first three matches were played as singles only.
Graham got off to a nightmare start in his first game, losing more holes than he’d like to admit, remember, or have anyone write about.
“The funny thing was that I didn’t feel nervous, but for some reason could not hit the ball properly,” he said.
The next day things were different. “This time I really was very nervous as I did not want to let the team down. And I was two under par when I won my game,” he said, mightily relieved.
KZN lost to North West Province 7,5-4,5 in their opener, but bounced back the next day to beat Mpumalanga 8-4 and Free State 7,5-4,5.
This set up an absorbing final day, with a number of permutations possible.
KZN rose to the challenge and closed things out with a 8-4 win over Boland.
“It was such an honour to have been part of a team like the one we had,” said Graham, who was one of the youngest and skinniest (by far) players in the team.
Part of that team was Sean Baker, who lives in Kokstad and has been a member there for years, but plays out of Margate CC for league purposes.
He’s played in plenty of these tournaments and rated this one as his best yet. “Great venue, great team, great result,” he said.
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The team comprised: Corne van Deventer (captain – Vryheid), Derek Scullard (KwaMbonambi), Tom Lovett (Prince’s Grant), Jens Hillermann (Noodsberg), Koenie Erasmus (Umhlali CC), Ryno Crous (Vryheid), Sean Baker (Margate CC) and Graham Fabricius (Port Shepstone).
The manager was Wynand de Swardt, now in his eighth year.
Two days later Graham was in action for Southern KZN against Cotswold Downs in a premier league game at Port Shepstone.
The locals lost 8-4 and will now need to beat Royal Durban by a huge margin in their next game, and/or hope Durban CC beat Umhlali by a massive margin.
Those games will be played on June 4.
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