KeNako Academy Head Coach Roger Wessels recently had the pleasure of spending time on a few of South Africa’s finest golf courses by watching and mentoring some of South Africa’s finest junior talent.Roger accompanied the Junior Golf RSA team in his capacity as Golf RSA Squad Coach.

The first tournament was played on the wonderful St Francis Links and Golf RSA Junior squad members, Wilco Nienaber, Christo Lamprecht (South Africa’s Amateur Champion), Martin Vorster (Nomads Boys U15 SA Champion) and Yurav Premlall were looking forward to the challenge. The golf course bared its teeth on the first day with a 40 km/h wind blowing across the Links which made for very difficult scoring with triple bogeys, quadruple bogeys and worse being registered on most player’s score cards. Luke Mayo from Natal was the only player to break par and his 71 established a 3 shot lead over Wilco Nienaber and Ben van Wyk.
The second day was perfect for golf with very little wind and overnight rain had softened the greens which made for ideal scoring conditions. Things got tight at the top of the leader board as the round progressed and there were 4 players tied for the lead when Wilco and Luke came down the last hole. Wilco produced a champions finish and after a fine drive hit his approach shot to a metre and duly holed the putt to win by a shot. The squad had a good tournament as a whole; Wilco finished 1st, Christo in a tie for 2nd, Martin a further stroke behind in 5th place and Yurav finishing in 19th place.
Roger said that he felt like he was back on tour when he checked the squad out, packed the bus and heading back to George to prepare for the Dimension Data Junior Championship at Fancourt.
South Africa’s number one junior, Jayden Schaper, joined squad players Wilco Nienaber, Christo Lamprecht, Martin Vorster and Yurav Premlall. The youngsters had the privilege of playing all three courses at the magnificent Fancourt Resort.
Jayden played fantastic golf the first two days and justified his no 1 ranking by shooting 6 under (67) at The Links, following that up with another 67 at Outeniqua to lead the field by 4 shots. Jayden really struggled on the final day at Montagu and his 4 shot lead had disappeared by the 7th hole and standing on the 11th tee Jayden was 3 shots behind. But, like all true champions Jayden was able to find a way to claw his way back into contention and played wonderful golf over the closing 6 holes to record a 1 shot victory. Roger was most impressed with Jayden’s composure under pressure and his determination to fight until the last hole.
The squad as a whole played superbly well; Jayden won the tournament, Christo finished 4th, Wilco finished 6th, Martin in 9th place and Yurav completed a remarkable comeback to finish 14th after shooting rounds of 82, 66 and 70.
Roger really enjoyed the experience and felt that a squad environment can be extremely beneficial if there is commitment from the members to constructive behaviour, language and work ethic which were all on display in this particular squad. The squad was open to learn from Roger’s experience on tour. Roger stated that he was not surprised to see the tournament winner come from the squad.
Well played to all the Golf RSA Junior Squad Members and congratulations on your fine victories.