There was no tournament golf for me last week, so we’ll start this report with a few words of congratulations from around the world of sport; with the Olympics on it’s a sports lovers paradise!
First of all, big congrats to Justin Rose on winning a gold medal in the men’s Olympic golf competition, which was being played for the first time in 112 years. It looks like we’ll be judging this as a successful re-introduction for golf to the Games, with two major winners battling it out down the stretch on a superb new course with great support from large galleries. In fact, golf seems to have been one of the best supported of all the events in Rio and no one should under-estimate the positive global awareness this competition has generated for our sport. You could see how much it meant to Justin and to the other medal winners, Henrik Stenson and Matt Kuchar. They were so proud to be out there playing and winning for their country. There’s nothing else like that.
No doubt Brandon Stone and Jaco Van Zyl will take away some very special memories from having been part of Team SA, mixing with the athletes and enjoying a unique sense of camaraderie. What a wonderful experience for any young athlete. Looking further ahead, it’s going to be exciting for us to have our two Olympians teeing it up in the SA Open in January, where I’m the tournament host. On that note, we’ve got some exciting news, but I’m under strict instructions to keep that under my hat until the official media conference on September 15. Suffice to say, it’s going to be another special week for our national open.
Anyway, back to the Olympics and good luck to all the players taking part this week in the women’s golf competition, which starts on Wednesday, including our very own Paula Reto and Ashleigh Simon. Team SA have already produced some strong performances in the past 10 days and I was glued to my TV to see Wayde van Niekerk’s stunning 400m run, winning our nation’s first gold medal of these Games and breaking Michael Johnson’s 17-year-old world record. As the commentators said, Lane 8 can be a tough one to run as you are always out in front and can’t see what the other runners are doing. All the experts are saying this incredible young man looks set to be one of the next true superstars of athletics. He makes South Africa very proud.
Finally, it seems a long time ago now, but at the start of last week Jim Furyk was announced as the recipient of the 2016 Payne Stewart Award presented by Southern Company, given annually to a golfer who best exemplifies Payne’s values of character, charity and sportsmanship. I know Jim will be thrilled and humbled by this award, just as I was on receiving it in 2015, and he’s certainly a deserving recipient.
Jim (or Mr. 58 as we must now call him!) is one of 13 former major champions, Olympians and Ryder Cup stars that make up a strong field in North Carolina this week for the Wyndham Championship. For me, this is a fifth appearance in six years. It is a superbly run tournament, one that does a lot for charity through its Wyndham Worldwide Charitable Foundation, and last year it also won the award for the most ‘fan friendly’ event on the PGA TOUR. And it’s always a pleasure teeing it up at the beautiful Sedgefield CC, a classic Donald Ross design that was the host venue for the Greater Greensboro Open for over half a century. History buffs will know it’s where Sam Snead won his last, and all-time record 82nd tour event at the age of 52. That was the eighth time he’d won here, by the way!
As I was saying in my previous report, this is the last chance to qualify for this year’s FedEx Cup, and realistically I need a win or a runner-up spot. Yes, it’s asking a lot to jump 40-odd places on the points list in the final qualifying tournament, but it can be done. In fact, Davis Love III did exactly that last year with a memorable win here. And so too did the runner-up that week, Jason Gore, who jumped from 166th on the points list to just inside the top-100.
As always, a win is the result that I’m targeting here. I enjoy this golf course and have shot 65 a couple of times, so all in all I am really looking forward to it.
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