My son and daughter on top of a hill in Swellendam to watch the sunset. Dec 2015

WORLD DEAF GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

Round one of the World Deaf Golf Championships

After a long and slow day, 6 hours to finish round one, the two South African ladies finished a comfortable 10th and 11th place in their first
attempt at the World Deaf Golf Championships. The top ladies after round one are :

Melissa Stockton from USA leads with 86
2nd is Susan Hamilton from New Zealand 87
3rd Jennifer Meric from Australia on 89
Vanessa McIllroy (RSA) in 10th on 98 and Gail klichowicz (RSA) 11th with 102 for the first round.

The leaderboard for the men has David Ewen from Scotland leading dayn one with 72 strokes
2nd Johnathan Rose (CAN) with 74 strokes
3rd Mark Forrest (ENG) 75 strokes
16th Cedric Touzard (RSA) 83 strokes
23 Ryan Lotz (RSA) 85 strokes
37 Danie marais (RSA) 89 strokes

Seniors leader board shows Rob Cundy (CAN) taking an early lead on 78
2nd Kenneth Hofman (CAN) 81
3rd Ian Kennedy (SCOT) 81
15th Raymond Graf (RSA) 98

The Ladies Team results has USA in front, follwed by Ireland and South Africa holding 3rd place.

The Torrance course is a beautiful and very tough course, with the most splendid views of St Andrews Bay, set up on the cliff above the sea, you can see Carnoustie across the Bay on a clear day.
The course itself is well manicured, well bunkered for the errant palyer, so club selection is paramount if you want to finished the day unscathed.
It is a typical links course, lots of rolling fairways and deep rough,and finding balls is always difficult. The organizers have thankfully stationed ball spotters along the course maikng it easier to find errant balls
which have a tendency to follow their own flight path. The greens are in excellent condition and fairly easy to read making putting rewarding.

After a very tiring and lengthy day one, day two has dawned on us cold. overcast and a bit windy. The men tee'd off at 6H30 this morning and the ladies will tee off at 12H10

South African domestic cricket season 2010 / 2011

The MTN40 Domestic Cricket season starts again in October. Defending champions Warriors will be all out to keep the Trophy in Port Elizabeth. Star Chevrolet Warriors batsman, Colin Ingram winning the awards for the Pro20 Cricketer of the Year, SA Cricketers’ Association (Saca) Most Valuable Player and the Domestic Players’ Player of the Year (awarded by his peers),will once again spearhead their campaign.

Swedish Masters Golf Tournament

Round one at the Swedish Masters in Stockholm played at the Bro Hof Slot Golf Club, rated as the 9th best in Europe, finished yesterday with Louis Oosthuizen carrying on with his form from The Open at St Andrews last week.
He carded a 5 under par 67 along with Richard Green and American Dustin Johnson.
Louis' round consisted of 6 birdies and 1 bogey.
KJ Choi round of 68 saw 6 birdies and 2 bogeys leaving him one shot behind the leaders.
Fredrik Andersson and Rory Sabbitini were 4 shots behind on 71.

Hole 17, the 137 meter with the green in the middle of the lake on an island, caught out quite a few of the golfers. The 17th played 21 birdies, 96 par, 22 bogeys and 16 Double bogeys.

Round two is currently underway, KJ Choi(-9) slipping ahead with an early eagle. Choi is currently 2 shots clear of Oosthuizen(-7) who has managed 3 birdies but has dropped a shot so far. Most of the top finishers of round one, still have to tee off.

King Louis is the King of the Open.


Louis Oosthuizen won The Open in St Andrews with a 7 point lead yesterday scoring 65,67,69,71 for a total of 272. Nearest competitor was Lee Westwood, 67,71,71,70 on 279.
Rory Mcilroy the first round leader with a course record equal of 63 strokes, suffered badly due to inclement weather but fought back bravely to finish in 3rd place alongside Henrik Stenson and Paul Casey. Mcilroy finished with 280 63, 80, 69, and 68. Fellow South African Retief Goosen finished 6th with a total of 281.
Sharing 7th place was Robert Rock, Sean O’hair, Nick Watney and Martin Kaymer all on 282.Rickie Fowler did the best on Sunday scoring 67 and promoting him 38 places to finnish in 14th place.
Charl Schwartzel finished in 12th place 4 under par, with rounds of 71, 75, 68 and 70
Trevor Immelman finished in 23rd place 3 under par, after shooting 68, 74, 75, and 68, moving up 29 places. Tiger Woods shares 23rd with 67, 73, 73 and 72 on 285 strokes.
Names like John Daly, Phil Mickelson and Stewart Cink all finished one over par 289 in 48th place.
The weather played havoc with the players, as those that tee’d off late on Friday, got the brunt of the weather and cost them the cut. Names like Els, Rose, Watson, Weir and Furyk all suffered the brunt of the storm, which suspended play for a good forty five minutes. The wind was blowing the balls off the greens and made play impossible. Louis Oosthuizen on the other hand, played early and got to the comfort of the lounge before the weather set in.
The most difficult hole for the tournament was no doubt the par 4, 495 yards over the shed , sloping green 17th hole. If you were short of the pin by two meters the ball rolled off the green. It delivered 68 double bogeys, 173 bogeys, and only 16 birdies.

Summary round two The Open:

South African Louis Oosthuisen was leading round two by 5 strokes when inclement weather halted proceedings when the wind caused havoc which affected ball flight and pushed the balls around the greens as if they were on their own mission.
Oosthuizen made good use of excellent playing conditions in the morning, posting a 5 under 67, and no sooner had he finished and the wind bared its teeth with some 40 km/h winds. Round two will carry on this morning and round three will start soon after. With some of the top golfers bordering the cut line, this morning they will have to play their socks off. Marc Calcavecchi who was also one of the fortunate golfers who teed off in the morning, posted a 5 under 67, to move up to 2nd on the leader board.

Louis Oosthuizen a product of the Ernie Els foundation was born in Mossel Bay South Africa in October 1982. Oosthuuizen turned professional in 2002 at the age of 19.He has had 6 professional wins , five in the Sunshine Tour and one in the European tour.
This is Louis 4th attempt at The Open , being cut in 2004,2006 and 2009

The first round of the Open took place yesterday and saw Northen Ireland's Rory McIlroy streak away to a course best of 63 strokes, 2 ahead of upcoming Louis Oosthuizen from South Africa. John Daly one shot behind on 66. Tiger Woods fininshed on 67 and Trevor Immelman finishing 4 underpar in 17th place.

Hole 17 was the toughest hole of the day with 19 double bogeys and 57 bogeys. Only 5 golfers managed to birdie this hole.

Lee Westwood had a streak of 5 birdies in a row while Joshua Cunliffe a streak of 4 bogeys. The projected cut looking dismal for a lot of the top golfers as even par is the cut off line after the first round, today they will have pull out all the stops to secure their place going into the 3rd round.


The second round is underway and Jeff Overton being the biggest mover with a jump of 37 places to 59th place, followed by Mark Calcavecchi jumping up 27 places to 18th place.

Hashim Amla nominated in six categories for the 2010 SA Cricket Awards.
SA Cricketer,
Players'Player,
Fans,
KFC,
Test
and ODI of the year.

The 2010 SA Cricket Awards Gala Dinner in association with Standard Bank, Castle and MTN to be held next Tuesday, July 20 at a glittering banquet at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg

Inspiration from a different source.


Looking out of the boma, passport in hand,
wondering if I should leave this land,
with the setting sun, out in space
who would want to leave this place
after all, this is Africa

Spain's Maria Hernandez is currently getting ready for the US Ladies Open 2010 in Oakmont USA, had this to say.

I'm in Toledo, Ohio right now. Here is where I played my first tournament on the LPGA last year with an sponsor exemption so it is always nice to be back!
On the first round I shot 1 under and today I shot 1 under again. Today I played a little better, but didn't score too well. I started feeling better on the course so hopefully this is the beginning of something good.
I will be playing this weekend so hopefully day after I improved and I can shot some good score.

The US Ladies open officially starts tomorrow 8th July and will run till the 11th July. Close to 150 ladies expected to take part.

Wed., July 7
Gates Open at 6:30 a.m. EST
Practice Round


Thu., July 8
First Round
Gates Open at 6:30 a.m.

Players tee off of # 1 and # 10 throughout the day



Fri., July 9

Second Round
Gates Open at 6:30 a.m.

Players tee off of # 1 and # 10 throughout the day
Field is cut at the conclusion of play to low 60 and ties, plus anyone within 10 strokes of the leader.



Sat., July 10

Third Round
Gates Open at 7:00 a.m.

Players tee off of # 1


Sun., July 11

Final Round
Gates Open at 7:00 a.m.

Players tee off of # 1
Trophy Presentation on 18th green immediately following play