MARCH

G AU T E N G

N O M A D S

2012

INS ID E RIG H T

CAPTAIN SHOUTS FORE!

The Country Club, Johannesburg was in superb condition last week and it was really nice to play the same course as the Pros had played two weeks earlier, for the Telkom Open, at which Golferama did the scoring. Unfortunately, the greens had suffered a bit as they have to be cut especially short to speed them up for the tournament (and again for Club Champs the week after) and needed to have a few patches replaced. One never quite realises the damage that can be done to a course with a high prole tournament, until it is pointed out and explained to you. I had one of the best Nomads rounds I have played in a long while (and they are all usually very good!), playing with Morne Bekker, the CCJ Vice Captain, who shot a gross 70, to win A Division, Best Playing Pair and Best Playing 4-Ball! At least I tagged along on 2 of the prizes! Our opposition, who politely let us win, were Dorian Wharton-Hood, who is the rst 50-year Nomad to play in his anniversary game, and Dave Renaud, who collected his 100 game badge. Dorian shot 83 gross, at the age of 73, and tells me he has not yet broken his age, but equalled it at Gleneagles, in Scotland last year. Sorry to say, inevitably, his gross was lower than the Captain's. for birdie on the third. To which I chirped "I see what you mean, obviously Nomads putting doesn't speed it up for you!" I am still not sure what he meant with original comment! At least that established good friendly banter that led to a frank and honest chat in the bar after prize-giving. (Yes, I was allowed in!!! Shock! Horror!) Hopefully, that will lead to a better relationship when we next play there (even if it is another 10 years!) Nationals was a great success, despite (or perhaps because of) the rain. Raising the ag at Nationals is supposed to be the pinnacle of your Nomadic year as Captain. As we walked out, to wait for interminable speeches from the Mayor and Club Captain, it started to lash down with rain. By the time I got to pull the ag up, I was sodden, miserable and frozen & far from a highlight. Fortunately, there have already been other good highlights, such as presenting the trophies at the various Junior and Disabled Golf tournaments that we sponsor, as well as the general support from my fellow Nomads. Well done to Tony Fairburn (the National Co-ordinator) and Graham Bishop (Gauteng Co-ordinator) for a brilliant tournament under ver y difcult conditions. Maybe the Cowboy bar was a bit of a damp squid (pun intended as it was 6 under water on Sunday, with everyone drinking barefoot! & The only time I have seen such a scramble to share the stage with the dancing girls!)

CCJ (WOODMEAD) RECENTLY WELCOMED THE GAUTENG NOMADS FOR OUR MONTHLY GAME FOR MARCH. Nomads ooded the course for Nationals, who said the course was in the best condition that they had ever seen it and that the staff all wanted Nomads to come back and replace their own members!!! Obviously, we don't have the same effect on a course as the Pros. Incidentally, the National Executive Meeting before Nationals approved a change to the handicapping system that will be effective from next month's game, whereby the highest handicap that you can now play off in Nomads is 0-1-2 less than your club handicap. Previously, it was 1-2-3. That means if you are an 8 or lower handicap then your maximum Nomads Handicap is the same as your club, if you are a 9-16 handicap, it is one less than your club and if you are over 16, then it is 2 less than your club. There was considerable debate as to whether this was fair, and it was adopted as an interim measure only, pending the outcome of the changes to the SAGA handicapping system. Let's see what happens. Give me your feedback in a few months time.

Gentlemen, yet again a few people have not put their scores in timeously after the CCJ game. If this continues, we will be left with no alternative but to implement the National Executive On the rst green Morne said, when we decision regarding penalties. Please help reminded Dorian to putt out, that he me to help you. I do not want to have didn't think it speeded up the game, at to chase everybody, like naughty least not the way that he putts! He schoolboys, to put your scores in. then proceeded to sink a 30' for birdie, Incidentally, I spoke to someone who Thank you. a 20' on the second for birdie, and a 10' played at Sheppie the week after

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS

VICE CAPTAIN LIPS OUT

A big THANK YOU to Riki Corthouts for his kind donation of a magnicent diamond ring valued at R29950.00. The ticket sales are going well and there are only 37 of a maximum of 100 tickets available so please contact Darren on 082 855 6665 if you would like to buy a ticket. We are only selling tickets to Gauteng Nomads until July and then if there are any left we will sell outside of our club. tickets for this event. Mike please let us know if you plan on blowing anything else down this year. The Lotto draw comes up for renewal in May, those guys in the current draw will get rst option to renew their numbers and anyone wanting to buy a ticket please let Andrew Mostert know.

Thank you to Stewart Vernon for the donation of the six Thanks for all your support bottles of Bells Special Reserve that he won at Nationals. They will be used as prizes at our Andrew Mentis golf day. Cheers Unfortunately the blowdown on 22 April is not visible from Spero any vantage point, so as a result we will not be able to sell

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS

BLAKES BLAH! BLAH!

MONTHLY GAME It's been a few years since we played at CCJ and some things just don't change (see my comment about "minor" clubs in my last Blah! Blah!). The course was in superb condition and that was fairways, greens and even the bunkers, I saw a few of those. Morne Bekker, CCJ's Vice Captain, played with our Captain and shot a superb two under par round off his -2 handicap. Congratulations to Dorian WhartonHood on being awarded his 50-year tie and Jamie Gowans his 5-year tie. Dorian is only the 4th Gauteng Nomad to receive this prestigious award and the 1st to play on the day. Dave Renaud received his 100 game badge (at last). Dave was an Associate Member for many years but his taking 17 years to get this badge pales into insignicance against Dorian Wharton-Hood who took 45 years to receive the same game badge a record of a different kind! Dorian (a Past Natal Nomad Captain) has probably been a Gauteng Associate Member for the past 35 years. Welcome to John Clifton and Andy Harris who were inducted on the evening. I'm sure you will both enjoy many great years of Nomads fun, fellowship and camaraderie. John certainly started his Nomadic career with a "bang", despite his complaining about having his Club handicap cut by 4 shots, he managed to win the B Division and he was also in the Best Drawn Fourball! Well-done Larry B on another superb nes session. It was great that you could catch up on many of the misdemeanours that took place at Nationals. B I R T H D AY AND ANNIVERSARY WISHES Jerome Davis


70 Annibal Fernandes

60 Colin Nicholls

60 Victor & Lana Hurford
40th GET WELL/CASUALTIES Nigel "Tjirpee" Ford is progressing well, albeit very slowly, and he is now residing at Jafta in the South of Johannesburg. I think it is going to be a while before he is able to come out to do the starting at a Nomads game. I know he would love to hear from you, do give him a call on 082 390 6248. Joan Dixon was rushed off to hospital last Thursday (Dickie had to cancel his game) and I am glad to say that she is back home and "doing very nicely". Mike Perkin (at almost 62) decided to go bungee jumping, at Oribi Gorge on the day they were washed out at Nationals, and tore his rib cartilage. Ever yone wishes you a speedy recovery. JUST ME Many thanks to Dorian Wharton-Hood for his "guilty conscience" self-imposed ne. He gave us a cheque/donation of R1000.00 for his non- participation and his "Non Nomadic" dress both on and off the golf course. While on the subject of Dress Code, please remember that if you have proposed a golng pal to apply to join Nomads and he is invited to play in a look-see game, he must be properly attired both on and off the golf course. Also a lot of you have got very sloppy in your dress too and this is going to be monitored very carefully at future games. Congratulations to Norman Leys, he was the best scoring Gauteng Nomad player at the Port Shepstone Nationals with 96 points for his three rounds. He really fooled the Handicapper by scoring 20, then 34 and nally 42 points at his 1st National Tournament. This means that he is the winner of the Derrick Transell Trophy, well done Norman. At the other end of the spectrum I heard that Nic "Loop en Val" du Toit managed a brilliant total of 70 points for his three rounds. From all accounts, excluding the weather on the rst two days, the National Tournament was a great success and Graham Bishop, I'm told, did a super job as our co-ordinator, at his rst National Tournament. I handed in my 20, 25, 30 and 35-year ties (there certainly wasn't much wear on them, especially the last two). Remember Rob Cunningham is looking for your "old" ties whenever you get a "new" one. It was great seeing Cyril Ferrar back in the eld, we haven't seen a lot of him during the past few years after his shoulder surgery. Interestingly he had just been granted another six months Leave of Absence, so let's hope this wasn't just a "ash in the pan" visit. Riki Corthouts has done something wonderful and life changing; he has adopted his orphaned nephew. Riki's Mom brought out the nephew, from Belgium, on the day we played at CCJ and I believe the nephew turned one just two days later. Well-done and good luck to Riki and Marlize. The Mystery Tour is all set up for Friday the 11th May 2012. If you are interested in joining in the fun please contact Dobri (his cell phone number is 082 890 4929) as soon as possible as the bus is lling up quickly. The Durban weekend will be the 6th to the 8th July and this year it will tie in with the Durban July. Please send Dobri an email if you are interested. This is a chance for those "newer" Nomads to experience what a Nomads Away Trip is all about! I've just received a copy of the draw for the 2nd round of the Gary Player Knockout (and the 1st round of the Plate) and interestingly the defending GPKO Champions (Mark Lamb & Alby Coelho) are already in the Plate! Another piece of trivia, from the same draw, is that I'm sure Larry B and Ryan White are having to give the most points ever in a GPKO round (41 to Chris Wells and Andre Germs). Can anyone recall more than this? GOLF POEM In my hand I hold a ball, white and dimpled and rather small. Oh, how bland it does appear this harmless looking little sphere. By it's size I could not guess, the awesome strength it does possess. But since I fell beneath it's spell, I've wandered through the res of Hell. My life's not been quite the same, since I chose to play this stupid game. It rules my mind for hours on end; A fortune it has made me spend. It's made me curse and made me cry and hate myself and want to die. It promises me a thing called par, if I hit it straight and far. To master such a tiny ball, should not be very hard at all. But my desires the ball refuses and does exactly as it chooses. It hooks and slices, dribbles and dies and disappears before my eyes. Often it will have a whim, to hit a tree and take a swim. With miles of grass on which to land, it nds a tiny patch of sand. Then has me offering up my soul, if only it would nd the hole. It made me whimper like a pup and swear that I would give it up. And take to drink to ease the sorrow but the ball knows I'll be back tomorrow.

47th NATIONAL TOURNAMENT

The 47th National Tournament hosted by Southern Natal at the Port Shepstone Golf Club has come and gone. The tournament was played from 10 March to 16 March 2012 over the traditional 6 days with each entrant playing 4 rounds (weather permitting and arriving for your tee off time), more about this later. Gauteng were represented by 36 players and 3 players entered into the fringe tournament. As Gauteng National Co-ordinator I wo u l d l i ke t o t h a n k a l l t h o s e responsible for assisting in making the tournament a massive success, specically Norman Sieberhagen and Tony Fairbairn from Southern Natal who helped me right from the outset in arranging my rst South African Nationals, both as player and coordinator. When I accepted the appointment as co-ordinator I did not imagine the amount of work that would go into arranging an event like this. Having participated in the tournament and experienced all it has to offer it makes all the e-mails and phone calls worth it. For those Gauteng Nomads who have never participated in the event you are missing the closest experience to a professional tournament you will ever play in. From the daily scoreboard and the scoring tent to the handicaps being calculated and changed overnight, no detail is left unattended. have been a sign of how the week would go as we consumed large quantities of Bell's and SAB product. Thanks to all those who attended, in particular our hosts, Darren Holm (JVC) for arranging and cooking the food and Spero Marinaki (VC), for arranging the drinks. On the evening all the entrants were presented with a travel shirt sponsored by Derek Cuthbert from Bell's and a cap sponsored by Bell's Nationals. Thanks to Hennie Ehlers from Lema International for arranging all the embroidery and printing of both the shirts and caps. My contribution was the caddie bibs, which appear to have been a success at Nationals and I am sure that this will continue at the next event. was enough to crown him the B division winner of the day, overall B division winner and Gauteng overall winner, to mention but a few. To put the achievement in perspective one has to consider his less than perfect opening round of 20 points putting him in close contention for matchbox. On the topic of matchbox, Nic Du Toit "Loop en Val" managed to amass 70 points over 3 rounds of golf and just missing out on the golden matchbox, a title we were defending from Strand Golf Club with compliments of Gowie. Wednesday evening Pat Frampton hosted the prize giving and had the honour of presenting Alec Saunders with his 40th Nationals tournament badge. After receiving this accolade, Alec must of thought that his Nationals responsibilities had now ended as on Friday morning at 08h00 I received a c a l l f ro m N o r m a n S i e b e r h a g e n enquiring as to Alec's whereabouts for his 07h42 tee off time. After nishing what must have been an intriguing novel he did manage to complete the back nine on Friday. Another regular Nationals entrant who thought that bungi jumping off Oribi on your day off was advisable, resulted in an injury and an end to his Nationals and I suspect that next year Mike Perkin will rather loan the novel from Alec Saunders. Graham Bishop

At 17h45 on Saturday the rain started, just in time for the traditional ag raising and didn't stop until 11h00 on Monday. After 300mm of rain the organizers had to cancel round 1 and some players were given 28 points for round 2. The tournament was ofcially reduced to a 54 hole event. So after the rst ofcial round the leader for G a u t e n g w a s o u r C ap t a i n , P a t Frampton on 35 and Heinz Abt with 35. Round 2 we saw Derek Browne, Graham Bishop, Doug Watson and Andrew Mostert with 34 points, however, this was not enough to beat Tony Pacheco with 36 points. The nal round saw a Gauteng Nomad enter the The tournament kicked off with a pre highest score of the tournament - well Nationals function hosted at Nic and played Norman Leys with an incredible Bev Du Toit's house. This in itself should 42 points late on Friday afternoon. This

PRIZE SHEET - CCJ WOODMEAD

Divisional winners all sponsored by Mercedes Benz East Rand. Divisional runners-up all sponsored by Kleinhoekkloof Wine.
A Division Morne Bekker (G) David Rigby Larry Bredenkamp Best playing four ball Pringle Pat Frampton Dorian Wharton-Hood Best drawn four ball Bells Nic du Toit Stewart Vernon H/C -2 4 5 Pts 36 36 35 H/C 18 Dave Renaud Morne Bekker (G) H/C 39 Peter Nieman John Clifton (IND) H/C 29 Pts 94 Pts 136 Pts 128 R/U playing four ball SAB Jamie Gowans Kevin McKenzie R/U drawn four ball Bells Trevor Baillie Jamie Gowans Best playing pair Kleinhoekkloof Wines Pat Frampton H/C 29 Pts 123 Andy Ostle Bolties Suprise Pts 123 Brian Bolton Tony Luyt Ferrars Ferret Cyril Ferrar Pts 68 Antonio da Mota Saunders Sizzle Alec Saunders Gavin Ditcheld Byrons Birdie Byron Price R525 each Dobri S... lil Jimmys Wood Jimmy Littlewood Conrad Vermeulen Sids Server Brian Cusins Mike Ullyett Wununders Hole 18 Hole 15 Andy Ostle Hole 13 Hole 8 Hole 4 Pts 181 Cox Trophy Pts 33 B Division John Clifton (IND) Antonio da Mota H/C 14 10 Pts 34 33 C Division Frank Leenaerts Heinz Abt H/C 17 15 Pts 35 34

Michael Hendricks Stewart Vernon H/C 53 Marius de Jager Ron Sinclair H/C 8

Worst playing four ball Breden / Larry B Riki Corthouts Colin Nicholls Vans 100 61 - Rob Cunningham 136 - Walter Kuner 55 - Heinz Walter Meat Rafe Joe de Klerk Riki Corthouts Pat Frampton Ian Taylor Hole In One

Dean Hausberger Lucien Tager

Morne Bekker (G) H/C 9 Pts 20

Mercados Matchbox R 500 400 300 R 250 150 50 50 Hole Eagles Clean all Over James Luyt Pick 3 : 36 - 34 - 35 Nic du Toit

Hole