Captain Shouts Fore – May 2015

Finally, my first game as Captain of Gauteng Nomads under the belt. I would like to thank all the Gauteng members for electing me as Captain and assure all of you that I will continue the good work done by all my predecessors in running this great Club of ours. To my thirteen man and one woman committee, I thank you for giving of your time over the next 12 months. To all the Gauteng members who have phoned, emailed and congratulated me, I appreciate the support.

The year started with having to attend the Gauteng Ladies Golf prize giving in early May held at Randpark. Gauteng were responsible for sponsoring prizes as part of our continued support of the furtherance of golf in South Africa. There was a wonderful turnout at the event and it’s good to see that our funds are being appropriately spent. Congratulations to all the winners.

My first official game as Captain was played in Knysna. Gauteng had a rather disappointing six man contingent attending the Southern Cape 30^th anniversary. The weekend started with a cocktail party at Knysna Golf Club on the Friday evening. Thanks to John Lees for organising everything and to David Meyer (Captain at Southern Cape) for all the effort in making the event a success. To two of our national sponsors, Tempest, for arranging free transport over the weekend and to Hollard (represented by Brian Algar) for reluctantly insuring the vehicle, their continued support of Nomads is appreciated. Saturday afternoon we played Knysna (home of the 2016 National Tournament) in a betterball format. I had the pleasure of playing with Flats Huisamen, the 2016 National Co-ordinator. We shared a cart so it was good to listen to how his plans and arrangements for Nationals were coming together. I can assure all of you that this will be one to attend. The course is a great layout, not long with excellent greens that run true and hold when you manage to hit one. There is no shortage of water, but most of which is easily avoided. The traditional Cowboy bar is situated next to the clubhouse on a wooden deck with a perfect view of the 18^th green. The clubhouse has recently been upgraded and is ready to host us in 10 months. On Sunday morning we played at Plett in their monthly game. Another gem of a course that I had never played. As this was the traditional Nomads format it has been recorded as our first official away tours game. I managed to beat the other five Gauteng boys with a decent 33 points and Pat Frampton bringing up the rear with 22. Thanks to Sean, Nic, Les and Pat for attending the anniversary. A special thanks to Glen Dalton who also played and who hosted us at his guest house – Knysna Manor House – for the weekend. We have already booked the venue for 2016.

Off to Kyalami Country Club for the first game of the year. The field got off to a slow start with the Ladies taking a little longer than expected. We have been assured that next year our monthly game will not coincide with their morning field. I think the course was in great condition and if any environmentalist would like to know what is being done to stop global warming, they need look no further than the forest Kyalami have created. It was a pleasure to play with Andre Erasmus, the newly elected Captain at Kyalami, Darren Holm on his 100^th game and a friend and prospective, Russell James. It was good to hear that it was Andre’s first encounter of Nomads and is considering membership.

It was my first prize giving and I was surprised at the amount of effort it takes to prepare for it. We continually hear that prize giving is too long. We put the prize giving on the stop watch and it took 38 minutes to get through the formalities, including fines master. The entire prize giving took 55 minutes to complete. I do not think that 55 minutes is that long, considering what is involved and the fact that we use this time to acknowledge all our national and local sponsors, to award badges and ties and to inform members of upcoming events. In a field of 124 we had a 20% non-attendance at prize giving. We are monitoring attendance and are aware of those that seldom attend – in saying that, the fact that you are reading this article probably means that it does not apply to you.

See you at the next game and prize giving.

Graham Bishop