Fitting season finale under African skies

GOLF:Just as the players look forward to their end-of-year trip to South Africa for the Nedbank Golf Challenge, so do us caddies, writes COLIN BYRNE

‘EXTRA-LARGE, large, double X, large” came the instructions from the locker-room of the Gary Player Country Club at Sun City in the North West Province of South Africa.

The men were arranging clothing for last Sunday’s guests arriving for the final day of the 13th Nedbank Golf Challenge. South Africa is a big country, in a big continent inhabited by obviously big men, many of them who were attending one of the most celebrated sporting events in the country.

The tournament marks the start of the summer holidays in the Southern Hemisphere and there was certainly a festive atmosphere around the four hotels that house guests at the Sun City resort.

For travel and golf-weary professionals and caddies it is a season finale that befits the last event of the year. There are only 12 competitors and we stay on site. There are social events scheduled for most nights during the week and there is a hospitality area for players, caddies and family, all which helps create a sense of a warm end-of-season gathering before and after each round.

The earliest tee time is 11am so nobody can complain about having to get up too early for what is the most relaxed and privileged event of the year.

The problem for the organisers this year was that the event, which has been played on the same date since its inception, clashed with Tiger Woods’ elite Chevron event in California. Previously they were staged on separate weeks. Because of the demands of extra end-of-year tournaments the two events could not find alternate dates.

Given the degree of difficulty in getting American golfers to make such a voyage to play golf outside of their own continent, this year Sun City was always going to struggle to attract US stars.

The organisers were trying to come up with some added attraction to this year’s “African major” so they came up with the idea of inviting eight Champions Tour players to compete in a mini two-round competition in tandem with the main show.

Four South African golfers in Fulton Allem, David Frost, Mark McNulty and Nick Price, who are all past champions of the Nedbank Challenge, were joined by four Americans – Fred Funk, Jay Haas, Tommy Armour III and Jeff Sluman. They headed out ahead of the younger players off slightly forward tees and warmed up the crowd for the main men.

The event has become a tradition for the regular spectators and guests who attend each year in Sun City.

These traditionalists were joined by a host of former South African golf stars engaged in media and hospitality duties in the nostalgia trip following the eight senior players.

As we arrived on the first tee on Thursday, the burly (XX-Large) Dale Hayes was on the tee acting as starter. He was telling jokes to the large crowd baking in the midday sun gathered in the surrounding stands as well as giving each player a big send-off down the first hole. Dale was the youngest winner on the European Tour before Seve Ballesteros came along. He also won the Order of Merit in the 1970s.

There were ex-touring pros acting as on-course commentators and the Lion King of South African golf, at 75 years of age and just back on the continent after a round-the-world-business trip, the irrepressible Gary Player was looking and sounding as buoyant as he did when this event first started.

Just as the players look forward to their end-of-year trip to South Africa so do us caddies. On top of the red-carpet treatment upon arrival, it is tradition for each of the 12 caddies to be assigned a “shag-caddie”. The set-up of the course is such there is no driving range at the venue. The 10th fairway acts as the range as well as the par-five fairway. With the size of the field this never causes any difficulty. But the balls need to be collected immediately so it is like a throwback to a former era where players hit balls at their “shag-caddies” and us tour caddies stand behind them like we would at any other event.

The local caddies also carried for us caddies during the practice rounds and we only had the bag on our backs for the four competitive rounds. They also carry the excess paraphernalia, like umbrellas and rain gear and extra drinks for friends and family following the round. So by the time Thursday came there were some of us in an initial state of shock hoofing down the first fairway in 35 degrees of African heat and humidity, at altitude, carrying even a bag reduced in weight for the first time of the week.

The capricious wind in the valley formed by a volcano where the Gary Player course is set is another variable that kept caddies from winding down the year too early. This coupled with the heat and altitude meant that picking a club was often calculated guess work.

The Sun City event is a perfectly relaxed way to end the golfing year. The only problem for most of the players is that, with such a packed schedule and finishing off on the demanding Gary Player course in tough conditions, they can find themselves a little flat by the first weekend of December.

It was no surprise that the world number one, Lee Westwood, fresh and in-form after his enforced break due to a mid-season injury, won by eight strokes and reinforced his position of dominance. He maybe even have alerted those who were over-golfed that pacing yourself in a long global schedule is as important as holing four-footers downhill.

“It is a season finale that befits the last event of the year . . .

The earliest tee time is 11am so nobody can complain about having to get up too early for what is the most relaxed and privileged event of the year

COLIN

BYRNE

CADDIE’S ROLE