Cynthia Rayner is elected President of WGSA

Former Boland Ladies Golf President Cynthia Rayner was elected Women’s Golf South Africa President at the Annual General Meeting held in Rustenburg last week. She takes over from Erica Lefson who has been in the chair for the past three years.

Cynthia brings to the position vast business and golfing experience and during her three year term as Vice-President, instituted excellent financial structures in WGSA and in the Unions, insisting that there be good governance and transparency in Women’s Golf throughout the country.

One of her initiatives during this time was to introduce two junior training camps a year in conjunction with the Department of Sport and Recreation. One is held at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria and the other at the Sports Science Centre in Cape Town. WGSA’s national coach Val Holland assists at the camps which are offered to girls aged 16 and under and coincides with junior provincial championships in each region.

She has also obtained residential scholarships for two Harrismith disadvantaged girls at the HPC in Pretoria – and gone the extra mile in ensuring that these girls attend all SA championships and travel home to their families on a regular basis.

Rules are Cynthia’s real expertise – since first qualifying as a rules official after passing her first R & A Rules exam in 2002, she has been refereeing at Sunshine Tour events, SAGA tournaments, the World Amateur Team Championships in 2006 and provincial and Nomads tournaments on a regular basis. During her years on WGSA, she has been chief referee at all national and some provincial tournaments and also assisted with Nomads/Golforama scoring at all SA Tour events in the Boland.

Cynthia and her late husband bought the Albertinia Hotel and Liquor Store in 1978 and after his untimely death in 1997, she took over the management until she sold the business in which she had been primarily involved in financial and stock control. She moved to Somerset West in 1998 where she was a volunteer at the Helderberg Hospice and she took on responsibility for finance and fundraising until being elected as President of Boland Ladies Golf.

She had two adult children and two-grand children and continues to live in Somerset West.

One of her first duties as WGSA President after the close of the WGSA 72 Hole Teams Championship in May, is to manage the South African team participating in the 5 Nations Astor Trophy to be played in England in June. The team is Tiffany Avern-Taplin, Henriëtte Frylinck, Bertine Strauss, Iliska Verwey and Kim Williams. The non-playing captain is Sandra Winter and coach, Val Holland.

A new vice-President was also elected at the 2011 Annual General Meeting. She is Karen Olivant – previously a KwaZulu Natal President who served on the SALGU Executive from 2001 to 2003. She is also a Rules Official having passed the 2002 and 2010 R & A Referees Exams and retires this month as Lady Captain of Port Shepstone Golf Club. She is married and has three adult children. She formerly worked in the Life Assurance Business and for the past 15 years has handled the financial side of their family business.

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