Soul-searching time for Big Fish
The name Gavin Sole has become synonymous with South Coast and KZN golf.
In years gone by, the depth of Southern KZN golf has been something quite special.
But times have changed, and people have moved on or away to Johannesburg, Cape Town and abroad.
Yet one figure has remained a solid, consistent presence – Gavin Sole, aka Big Fish, who plays his golf out of Southbroom Golf Club and is the manager there.
However, even he is starting to get to a stage where he’s been there, done that many times over. He’s 54 and has been on the circuit for ages.
To make matters worse, he will be heading into the new year nursing an injury.
It’s a short story with a fast end – he fell through the roof of the pumphouse left of the dam on the 2nd hole.
What he was doing there and why he was on the roof, you can ask him yourself, but he was fortunate to escape with only scrapes and bruises.
It could have been a whole lot worse; thankfully, x-rays revealed no breaks or fractures.
In terms of Southern KZN golf, Gavin has been a leading figure, both on and off the golf course. How much tournament and IPT golf he chooses to play this year remains unknown.
The quality is more than there, that’s for sure.
It’s almost that time of the year when he tees off in two tournaments he often wins, namely the San Lameer Open and the Southern KZN Closed.
This year, they will be played on January 19 at San Lameer and January 26 at Southbroom.
Gavin has won the San Lameer Open so often (12 now) that the joke is he has his own parking spot.
Friends who struggle to beat him around this scenic parklike course have nicknamed it Big Fish Country Club.
But while the course has buck, birds and most likely some slithery reptiles, it doesn’t really have ‘big’ fish.
Whatever the case, he has said he should be back hitting balls in early January after the busy Christmas and New Year season on the coast.
His main contenders could come in the form of lanky teen Cameron Olivant and the cool, calm and collected Jean-Marc Bouic.
Cameron, only 15, is a rising talent and will be looking for a breakout year in terms of tournament wins and not pimples.
Jean-Marc has been metronomically consistent and has shown steady, unflappable improvement over the past five years. He’s come close to winning tournaments, and 2025 could be his year.
Robert Mavundla had an excellent showing last year but has played in a few professional events and so surrendered his amateur status.
Chris Zietsman also played some great golf (when he played) but has moved back to Johannesburg, so he is sadly lost to Southern KZN golf.
Jan McDermott is another player who just always seems to have been there. He is capable of bursts of brilliance but has also spoilt some wonderful tournament rounds with inexplicable errors.
Koos Jacobs has found some form again but probably doesn’t play quite enough to threaten a win, but you never know.
* To book for the San Lameer Open, contact 039 3135141. To book for the Southern KZN Closed, contact 039 3166051 or David Rush on 083 7096912.
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