Not much joy for KZN golfing juniors

It wasn’t quite the result the junior team was hoping for at the recent U19 South African Interprovincial golf tournament held at East London Golf Club.

KwaZulu-Natal finished fifth out of the seven teams in the A-division.

Ekurhuleni won the main title for the first time in almost 30 years, while North West came out tops in the battle for promotion and will make their top-flight debut next year.

The eight KZN players in the team have all got some real potential so this hurt them, and it most certainly wasn’t something they were happy with.

Captain Luke Mayo summed it up pretty succinctly. “Obviously it was a very difficult week for the team. We just couldn’t find any momentum,” he said.

However, he said the rookies Dylan Underwood, Cade Cryer and Nikhil Gopal had fitted in really well and that the team spirit had been good throughout the week.

Those returning from last year were Mayo, Chris Woollam, Jonothan Broomhead, Byron Coetzee and Lisanthan Moodley.

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Team manager Joseph Kunene echoed Mayo’s sentiments.

“The team in general was good and they tried their best,” he said.

He noticed that often they had chances to win their matches but couldn’t quite finish opponents off.

“It seemed that they were fine up until about the 12th hole and then momentum was lost and the wheels started to collapse badly,” he said.

In the end he was relieved that the team managed to stay up in the A division and would be back to fight for the trophy in 2018.

It’s probably fair to say that the level of junior golf in the country is quite strong, with a number of very young players making great strides in men’s golf.

Hopefully that all bodes well for golf in general in the country.

One of the highlights for KZN was Gopal’s performances, which saw him with 8/12 points for the week.

That saw him tied for eighth in the overall MVP standings, alongside his experienced skipper. Pretty good going for a rookie.

Moodley was T14 with 7.5 points, with Woollam next of the KZN players on 6.5.

Broomhead had six points, while Coetzee had four, his task made a little tougher being higher up the order.

Cryer and Underwood will have better tournaments in the future no doubt, and could only manage 2.5 points each on this occasion.

Mayo, Underwood, Woollam and Coetzee will be lost to junior golf next year.

Gopal, Cryer, Moodley and Broomhead will be back to have another crack at the title. Or at the very least get KZN further up the log.

Results:

Day 1: Halved with Gauteng North. Lost to Western Province 7.5-4.5.

Day 2: Lost to Ekurhuleni 7.5-4.5.

Day 3: Beat Boland 7.5-4.5. Lost to Southern Cape 6.5-5.5.

Day 4: Bye.

Day 5: Lost to Central Gauteng 7.5-4.5.