Gauteng North heads to Polokwane as favourite to win 72 Hole Teams Champs

Losing Henriëtte Frylinck early this year to the professional ranks has not reduced the chances of the Gauteng A team (the DAISIES) successfully defending their WGSA 72 hole teams championship title which they won at Graceland, Mpumalanga in 2010 and at Langebaan in 2011. The team still includes both top-ranked South African amateurs, each of them winning the SA Stroke Play title in the past 14 months. Pictured here are the 2011 winners, Henriëtte Frylinck, Kim Williams and Nobuhle Dlamini.

The newcomer to the Gauteng North team is junior Madga Krüger whose first national or provincial championship was the 2011 SA Amateur. She is now ranked 13th on the SA Junior Ranking and 18th on the senior ranking and improving in every event in which she participates.

The 2012 72 hole stroke play event will be played at Polokwane Golf Club from Monday 21 May and 72 of South Africa’s top women golfers from all provinces will be competing in 24 teams of three players each, in two divisions.

The strongest opposition at Polokwane is expected to come from the new union, Ekurhuleni, a team that includes Namibian Bonita Bredenhann, currently playing off a +1 handicap, Nicole Garcia, a member of the current SA Elite squad playing off scratch and two-handicapped Tuks student Simoné Burger. Western Province’s three juniors Cara Gorlei, Amy Henning and Kelly Erasmus are also in top form but may lack the experience to Challenge the Daisies. Gauteng has lost Michelle Leigh, but with top junior Lara Weinstein, Talia Nel and Yushira Budram back on holiday from her US college, this team should also finish among the leaders.

The B Division Challenge Trophy is wide open but Western Province B with their fast-improving Korean girls, Jisun Kang and Seyoung Chun, together with Rushda Mallick, also on holiday from her USA college, look good to do well in this division and gain promotion.

Another US Student participating is Lynn-Marié Nagel, and with Megan Bissett who finished fifth in the Sanlam SA Amateur, the host team will also expect to do well.

The programme is 18 holes stroke play on Monday, 36 holes on Tuesday and 18 holes on Wednesday morning – probably with a four-tee start enabling all the players to get back home that day.

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