Kingswood Golf Estate hosted September’s very successful Southern Cape Junior Golf event.  Before going into detail about the tournament, mention must be made of the wonderful condition of Kingswood Golf Estate.  If you are an avid golfer and enjoy good fairways and great greens then do yourself a favour and play Kingswood!  The junior tournament was played in perfect conditions and scoring on what is a tough golf course was very good across all divisions.

One of the KeNako Academy’s new students, David Park from Korea – won his first prize as a golfer by winning the “C” Division, bettering his handicap by 7 strokes.  In the “B” Division another fairly new KeNako student, Jodie Duminy,  played to her handicap of 11 and won the division by a shot from young Martin Vorster, who has only recently returned from an overseas visit where he represented his age group in the US Kids Golf tournaments held in Scotland and the USA.  Since joining the KeNako Academy student programme Jodie has been making some quite significant changes to her golf game and she has worked really hard to come out of a recent period of poor play, so it was good to see her rewarded for her efforts.

The winner of the A Division and overall winner for the day was Garen Niemand.  Garen has come close to winning on several occasions so it is pleasing to see him finally breaking through and winning one of the tournaments.  Garen had lost in a play off to Jack Duthie at one of the tournaments earlier this year.   Garen shot a 73 gross to win by 2 shots from Mohit Mediratta, yet another KeNako student who hails from Kenya, and Robin Meyer, who is a Development Board player but who has been working out with Jan Fourie, KeNako’s resident Biokineticist, for the past several months.  Robin’s golf is clearly benefitting from his improved physical conditioning.

Congratulations are also due to Riaan Grootboom whose best ever score in a tournament, a 76, included the fantastic achievement of his first hole in one.  This is a tournament and a shot that Riaan will never forget.  To seal the KeNako Academy’s rewarding,  Riaan too is being assisted with a physical training programme by Jan Fourie at KeNako.

Congratulations to all the winners and well done to all the competitors for supporting Southern Cape’s Junior Golf programme and the Kingswood tournament.  The new Southern Cape Junior Golf committee are doing a great job and all junior players in the region are encouraged to play in the monthly tournaments.  Go to www.scjgf.co.za for more information.

Southern Cape Individual Matchplay Championships
After the Kingswood tournament, the top 16 players from the Junior Championships that were played in July commenced with the Individual Matchplay Knock-out event.  The first two rounds were played at Oubaai and the semi-finals and finals were played at Mossel Bay.  Thanks are due to both Oubaai and Mossel Bay for their continued support of and contribution to junior golf in the Southern Cape.

In the semi-finals Garen Niemand played Xillan Nel in the morning in perfect conditions. Garen managed to beat Xillan 3/2, his score for the round being around level par.  The other semi final was contested between Christo Carstens and Mentz Germishuys with Christo managing to win his match and going through to meet Garen in the finals in the afternoon.

The afternoon round started in great conditions and both played terrific golf with Garen getting to 4 under par after 14 holes before an incredibly strong wind storm – a 6 club wind – hit them!  Garen managed to get two up on Christo with 2 to play.  Christo showed great resilience and won hole 17, so taking the match to the 18th hole where they halved the hole, with Garen winning the title 1 up.  After his first win at Kingswood this was double cause for celebration for Garen, making it two tournament wins in two weekends.  Garen has shown steady progress during his time at the KeNako Academy and these results will only help to boost his self belief and confidence and make him realise that he has the talent to win tournaments.

Picture Captions as follows

Riaan Grootboom was awarded a special prize of a Taylormade tog bag for scoring his first ever Hole-in-One.

David Park of Korea receives his C Division prize from Anton Nel, President SC Junior Golf

Jodie Duminy, winner of the B Division, with Anton Nel, President SC Junior Golf

Garen Niemand, overall winner,  received his prize from Roger Wessels, his Head Coach at the KeNako Academy.

Roger W. & Riaan Grootboom       David Park & Anton Nel                Jodie Duminy & Anton Nel           Garen Niemand & Roger Wessel