Fear, fairways and flair

One hundred and twenty years ago, the first shots of the Second Boer War were fired on slopes of Talana Hill, near Dundee, a key coal producing area.

The now scenic and peaceful town of Dundee played host to a battle of a different type recently: the KwaZulu-Natal Country Districts Interzone golf tournament.

The Southern KwaZulu-Natal golf team travelled five a bit hours to ‘go to war’ in defence of their title, won at Eshowe last year.

It was not to be, and they had to settle for third in the end.

The golfers were greeted on the practice day a ferocious storm, with streaks of lightning flashing across the course, thunder booming across the valley and hail pelting down.

Twice they had to race off the golf course to seek shelter.

The team’s high hopes of a stoic defence were not to be as arch-rivals Ilembe Golf Federation (formerly North Coast) proved bullet-proof and romped to victory with a full house of points over the next three days.

Hosts Northern KZN sneaked into second spot with East Griqualand fourth and Zululand being handed the wooden spoon for last place.

On the opening day, which sees two rounds of team strokeplay played – Ilembe won both to finish the day with seven log points.

The weather was mercifully perfect for the three days, something no one could have predicted after that initial storm.

The railway line runs past the course, and trains rumbled past fairly regularly, leaving a few to look anxiously to the skies thinking it was thunder rolling down from the Indumeni mountains.

Southern KZN were second one point behind, despite spearhead Jason Gilliver returning a career-best 10 under par to win the individual championship (played at the same time).

It meant that the morning matchplay clash the next day between Southern KZN and Ilembe would prove vital.

Matches are sent out in reverse order, from eight to one.

Mikhail van Brakel went down to the ‘clubs it a mile’ Neil Erasmus, 4/3.

Gary Purtell, who has been playing this event on and off since the late ’80s, halved with teenager Matt Walters, 45 years his junior.

“Man that was disappointing,” he said, explaining a three-putt on the third last hole to let the youngster in.

He wouldn’t be the only one to experience this emotion.

Elvis Khawula, also no stranger to matchplay ebbs and flows, three-putted the last hole to square his match with Astin Arthur.

Then Graham Fabricius, did the same against Thabiso Magwaza.

“I actually had a shorter birdie putt than he did, but he holed his and I missed. That’s golf,” he said phlegmatically.

To be honest, no one really cared, they were just too happy to see Graham back playing golf after the devastation of his wife’s untimely death early this year.

Meanwhile, the team’s secret weapon, Jean-Marc Bouic, on debut managed a 2-hole win against Ilembe captain Koenie Erasmus.

That was quite a scalp to claim as it was only his second ever competitive matchplay game.

David Rush held to see off Phil Barnes 1-up, despite a few wild tees shots on the second nine.

Gavin Sole went down 4/3 to newcomer Chris Erasmus – no relation to Koenie and his son Neil.

However Chris has previously played top-level amateur golf and still beats it a staggering distance.

Gilliver, meanwhile continued his astonishing strokeplay form, handing Kyle Kistensamy, arguably the province’s top player coming into the event, the ignominy of a dog licence, 7/6.

(In Great Britain, until 1987, dog owners bought a licence for their pet which cost 7/6d)

The end result was 4,5-3,5 but it meant that Southern KZN’s defence had effectively crumbled, and it would need a series of unlikely results to go in their favour in the next two rounds.

This didn’t happen and was compounded by a defeat to the hosts on the final morning’s play, despite comfortable wins over East Griqualand Zululand.

Still, it was a wonderful weekend of camaraderie and enjoyment.

There’s something about playing 100 odd holes of golf in three days that causes friendships to be formed and existing bonds strengthened.

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