Still time to enter Southern KZN Open

THE Southern KZN Open will be played at Selborne Park this Sunday, November 11.

Defending champion is Jason Broomhead of Durban CC who won at Umdoni Park last year.

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Please note that the A/B division split will be done according to your handicap index on the Handicap Network Africa website, and not according to how it adjusts for Selborne Park.

So, please don’t arrive expecting to play Stableford on a cart when you are in fact in the A division playing strokeplay on foot!

* Golfers mourn

Alan Devitt (81), past secretary for the KwaZulu-Natal Golf Union, died last week after a short illness bravely borne.

His funeral will be at the Scottburgh Methodist Church this Friday, November 9, at noon.

Devitt retired four years ago, at the end of 2014, having served the union for 14 years as secretary.

He took up the role in the year 2000, when the late Ronnie Runge retired.

Devitt had retired to Scottburgh from Northern KZN, where he had worked for Iscor at Durnacol in the personnel (housing) department.

Previous to that he had worked on the gold mines at Stilfontein in Gauteng for 25 years.

He was no stranger to KZN golf at the time, having run Northern KZN golf for some time.

* Interclub changes

Due to the ever increasing number of Frog and Senior Frog teams taking part in the annual Interclub tournament, it has become necessary to trim the teams qualifying for the Sunday alliance.

“The number of golfers qualifying for the Sunday rounds, particularly the alliance, has led to heavy congestion on the course which in turn is causing delays in completing the final rounds,” said golf operations administrator Colin Burger.

He said any inclement weather or bad light could lead to an unsatisfactory conclusion of the tournament.

In addition, there are many teams that have long distances to travel to return home after the prize-giving ceremony and adverse weather conditions are not conducive to road safety.

The result is that as of 2019, when the tournament will be played at upper South Coast clubs, the number of clubs qualifying for the final day to be played on the Sunday will be cut to the top 10 teams in each division.

The first four teams will compete in the matchplay finals and the remaining six teams and ties will contest the alliance.

* League meeting

The inaugural league meeting will be held at Kloof Country Club this Thursday, November 8 at 5.30pm.

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This is the first meeting that will incorporate all club personnel involved in the administration and the playing of league, to discuss and agree upon the format of the 2019 season.

“The KZN Golf Union wishes to have a more holistic view and opinion as to how the league should work in attempt to accommodate the wishes of both the clubs and the players,” said Burger.

The union has decided that the composition of all league divisions will remain as is for 2019, i.e. there will be a blue pool and a red pool in every division.

Matters to be discussed at the meeting are listed below:

1. Number of matches to be played annually in each division – 8 or 4?

2. Are foursomes in all divisions, other than premier, necessary and viable?

3. Parameters of handicap index for Allerton league.

4. Participating clubs in each of the divisions to host the annual promotion and relegation matches as per normal league matches. No green fees payable.

5. All participating clubs to keep the advertised provisional league play-off dates in September 2019 in each pool free for possible promotion/relegation matches. The KZN Golf Union will inform clubs in good time as to which clubs will be used for play-off matches.

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