2009 SAGA Squad announced

The South African Golf Association (SAGA) announced the names of a 17 man squad for 2009 in Johannesburg today as well as the date of the first squad session of the year, namely 27 to 29 January 2009.

It is scheduled to take place at the Vodacom World of Golf, in Woodmead, Sandton, and will be supervised by the Gary Player Golf Experience team at the facility.

“The squad is a mix of the top ranked amateurs, according to the latest SAGA Rankings, and four of our promising young black players,” explained Enver Hassen, the president of the SAGA.

“Two players have been omitted from the squad as they are on scholarships in the United States. They are Dylan Frittelli, who is currently ranked 2nd on the latest SAGA Player Rankings, and Johan de Beer, who is ranked 14th,” said Hassen.

According to the squad programme coordinator, Neil Homann, the players gather on Tuesday 27 January. They will be split into groups, and over a two day period, each player in each group will have their swing analysed at the Gary Player Techlab, go through a club fitment analysis, a fitness assessment and finally a psychometric evaluation.

“Interspersed between these tests and assessments players will have time to practice,” said Neil Homann.

By the end of Wednesday all players will have completed all assessments. “On Thursday morning we will all play a practice round at Woodhill Country Club, in preparation for the Gauteng North Amateur Open Stroke Play which takes place over the weekend. In the afternoon we will return to the World of Golf where the results will be ready and each player will be individually addressed and given a programme to work on leading up to the next squad session we hope to hold at the end of June 2009,” explained Homann.

“Our plan this year is to hold three squad sessions, one in January, the next at the end of June and a final one in the beginning of September,” said Enver Hassen. “The purpose of these squad sessions is to offer our best players assistance in developing to their full potential. In future we hope to add playing experience to the offering through participation in international and national tournaments. We hope that in so doing we can improve our record in international amateur competitions when compared to performances since re-admittance to international sport in 1994,” commented Hassen.

The SAGA Squad is (in alphabetical order):
Coenie Bester (Mpumalanga)
Ryan Clarke (Central Gauteng)
Calvin Coelho (Kwazulu Natal)
Cameron Esau (Boland)
Derik Ferreira (Gauteng North)
Stephen Ferreira (Central Gauteng)
Adrian Ford (Western Province)
Yubin Jung (Central Gauteng)
Leon Knoll (Gauteng North)
Trevor Mahoney (Boland)
Dean O’Riley (Ekurhuleni)
Michael Palmer (Central Gauteng)
Jake Redman (Southern Cape)
Mikhail Tewary (Kwazulu-Natal)
Justin Turner (Western Province)
Nicol van Wyk (Western Province)
Steven Williams (Central Gauteng).