Special Congratulations to Jade Buitendag and Cameron Moralee
The Southern Cape Closed Championship was held this past weekend at the wonderful Oubaai Golf Resort. This is the major tournament on the annual Southern Cape Golf Union calendar. The tournament was played in perfect weather and the scoring certainly reflected the excellent conditions. For the KeNako Academy it was a proud day – KeNako students dominated the top positions!
19 Year old Jade Buitendag, who enrolled in the KeNako School Leaver program in January of this year, played some outstanding golf with a pair of 68’s, to win by single stroke from his school going colleague, 17 year old Cameron Moralee, who posted rounds of 70 and 67. The two KeNako students did not play together but they were well aware of the performances of their peers!
It was excellent to see both Jade and Cameron performing so well. Each young man has encountered some difficulties over the past few months. In Jade’s case, since enrolling at the Academy in January he has gone through a process of change both technically and physically. These changes have made his swing more efficient but unfortunately in the early stages of such changes the consequence is an inevitable dip in form and with it a fall in confidence levels. Jade’s play over the weekend proved that the corner has now been turned and Jade is not only looking forward to tournament golf again but more importantly his results prove that he is once again competitive and in all probablity playing at a higher level than he was before embarking on the changes.
Cameron’s return to form comes after a lengthy period away from the game with a shoulder injury. It is good to see that the rehabilitation work done with the Physio and KeNako’s resident Sports Science Professional is now paying dividends – Cameron has now got his physical conditioning back on track. Cameron enjoyed a somewhat meteoric improvement in his playing ability after joining the KeNako Academy in January 2012 and his shoulder injury, which relates to an old school rugby injury, was a major setback.
The KeNako student notable performances at the Southern Cape Closed Championships did not end with Jade and Cameron. Caylum Boon once again showed just how much he has recently improved by finishing tied fourth with rounds of 75 and 67. There is an interesting anecdote relating to Caylum’s 75. He started his 36 holes with a quadruple bogey 8 on the first hole, hitting his first 2 drives out of bounds – he played his fifth shot off the first tee of the day!!! Caylum showed that his mental skills are strong by not allowing his disastrous start to bother him.
Andre Nel is another student who performed admirably. He did not enjoy the best of morning rounds, shooting a 5 over par 77, but improved 10 shots in the afternoon to match the 67’s scored by Cameron and Caylum. Andre finished level par for the day and in a tie for 10th place with South Africa’s number 1 ranked junior golfer Jovan Rebula. Andre joined the KeNako School Leaver program with Jade at the start of 2014.
Ex-KeNako student Breyten Meyer finished tied fourth with Caylum Boon. Twin brother Aidan Boon continued his own recovery from a serious back injury that kept him out of playing for the first three months of this year by shooting two 73’s to finish in 14th position amongst the regions top golfers, senior and junior. KeNako students filled 5 of the top 10 positions.
It is interesting to note that the current group of 16 and 17 year old KeNako students are now coming to the fore. In most cases this is after they have been on the program for just over 2 years. The excellent results being achieved bear testament to the excellence of the KeNako Academy program and the quality of the professionals managing the program. Special congratulations to Roger Wessels and his team for their hard work and the fantastice results being achieved!
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Jade, Cameron and Caylum