History

The Nomads Creed

The words we have taken for our creed are printed in the renowned extract from the Meditations of John Donne (1573-1631):

                                                            No man is an island entire of itself;

     Every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main …

 Any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind,

     and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls.

It tolls for thee.


Nomads Constitution and Rules Of Play

NOMADS CONSTITUTION

NOMADS RULES of PLAY


Aims and Objectives of Nomads

  • Provide an opportunity for persons of all walks of life to meet one another at least once a month, to play a game of golf and to make new and cement old friendships.
  • To encourage, promote, foster and support the game of golf.
  • To generate funds for distribution to charitable causes and assist those persons, regardless of race, colour or creed, in a less fortunate position than ourselves.

Past Captains

1965   Ludie Ludeman 1966   Bill Wilson 1967   Gerry Conacher
1968   Tommy Forster 1969   Pat McGurk 1970   Henry van den Hoogen
1971   Ken McKenzie 1972   John Coulson 1973   Arthur Cox
1974   Fred Bruton 1975   Dudley Foaden 1976   Carl Wentzel
1977   Bobby Mercado 1978   Derrick Mostert 1979   Mike Stevenson
1980   Kenneth Blake 1981   Derrick Transell 1982   Fred Smit
1983   Frank Roos 1984   Alec Saunders 1985   Ray Parsons
1986   Brian Cusins 1987   Eben Nel 1988   Richard Moore
1989   Doug Watson 1990   Sidney Green 1991   Paul McCaskie
1992   Peter van der Byl 1993   Jimmy Littlewood 1994   Peter Clayton
1995   Brian Burns 1996   Steve Sherwood 1997   Brian Bolton
1998   Butch Hindman 1999   Cyril Ferrer 2000   Peter Kirchmann
2001   Ray Lourens 2002   Ray Germs 2003   Larry Bredenkamp
2004   Glen Dalton 2005   Nic du Toit 2006   Brian Coetzee
2007   Jerome Davis 2008   Byron Price 2009   Mike Gahagan
2010   Pat Gaffney 2011   Gavin Ditchfield 2012   Pat Frampton
2013/14   Spero Marinaki 2014/15   Darren Holm 2015/16   Graham Bishop
2016/17   Barry Bruton 2017/18   Sean Ledden 2018/19   Sean Ledden
2019/20   Nic du Toit 2020/22   Eugene Marx 2022/23  Craig Clarke
2023/24   Warren Mitchell    

Past National Chairmen

1967/69   Anthony Handley 1969/70   Bill Wilson
1973/74   Ken McKenzie 1976/77   Arthur Cox
1985/86   Derrick Transell 1987/88   Alec Saunders
1992/93   Brian Cusins 1999/00   Doug Watson
2007/08   Glen Dalton 2023/24   Graham Bishop

National Tournaments & Co-Ordinators

1966   Kyalami – Mike Florance 1973    Randpark – John Coulson / Fred Smit
1979    Wanderers – Arthur Cox 1986    Wanderers – Ray Parsons
1995   Royal Jhb – Doug Watson 2006    Randpark – Brian Burns
2019   Randpark – Graham Bishop  

Honorary Life Members

Gary Player Alec Saunders Doug Watson Brian Burns

Honorary Members

David Milton Glen Dalton Denis Hutchinson Spero Marinaki Nic du Toit

Graham Bishop


Current Founder Members

Transvaal/Gauteng    Gary Player  

A Brief History

In late 1959 Mike Florance, having been a member of a fraternity of golfers who met and played once a month, they called themselves NUMIC or Follow the Sun as the majority of the players were employed in the mining industry. Mike Florance with the approval of his fellow players formed a golfing club based on the concept under which they were already playing which was to be known as NOMADS as the club would not have any actual club premises but would approach various golf clubs requesting the use of their facilities to play their monthly games.

In April 1960 the Nomads club was established.

Mike Florance wrote the constitution and the rules of play for the club. The scoring system to be adopted for the monthly games was to be medal stableford. This method of scoring requires the player to play the course excluding ones official handicap. The points scores being as follows:- Eagle 4 points, Birdie 3 points, Par 2 points and one over 1 point if unable to score the player should pick up his ball. When the round was complete the points scored are tallied and the players handicap is added or subtracted to arrive at ones total. The club was named Transvaal Nomads the playing colours of white shirt and red trousers and later was changed to be a red shirt with black trousers. There were 106 founder members at its inception. The first game was scheduled to be played at Irene but was unfortunately washed out as was the second game to be played at Parkview.

The concept of the Nomads spread down to Natal and under the sponsorship of the Transvaal club the Natal Nomads club was established in 1963. Because of the rivalry between the two provinces an annual tournament was conceived called the Langham-Edward trophy. This tournament was to be played in Durban on the first weekend of July, coinciding with the Durban July. This was to ease the necessity of the gamblers making two trips to Durban.

Subsequently 10 more clubs have been established in South Africa and internationally, three clubs in Zimbabwe and, clubs in Botswana, New Zealand, Australia, Eswatini, Zambia and the United Kingdom.