GolfRSA – A look back at the 2020 highlights
24 December 2020 – Caitlyn Macnab and Casey Jarvis dominated the headlines early in the year with their unprecedented “double-double” for Ekurhuleni and Gauteng juniors Samantha Whateley and Kim Turgut drew the curtain on the shortened 2020 season with a joint victory in Kwazulu-Natal.
Macnab and Jarvis joined a short and exclusive list of golfers who achieved the rare SA Amateur double with their wins in the Aon South African Amateur Championships.
Serengeti’s Macnab celebrated her 18th birthday with the Aon SA Women’s Stroke Play Championship crown at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington while Jarvis became the youngest winner of the South African Stroke Play at 16 years, 6 months and 17 days, eclipsing a 51-year record held by Dale Hayes with his triumph at Randpark Golf Club.
Having crossed the first hurdle, no-one could halt the relentless charge of the country’s two top-ranked golfers towards their place in South African golf history in the match play stage.
Macnab defeated Kyra van Kan 4 & 3 in the 36-hole final on the East Course to become only the 13th golfer to achieve the double, and Jarvis from State Mines routed James Wilson from Scotland 7 & 6 to become just the seventh golfer to double up since the match play championship separated from the stroke play championship in 1969.
Demi Flanagan made a welcome return to the winner’s circle in the season-opening Border & Eastern Province Championship and World No 30 Martin Vorster showed he was born for the big moments when he forced Great Britain’s Olly Huggins into a play-off for the African Amateur Stroke Play Championship title with a 30-foot eagle putt at the final hole of regulation play. The Pinnacle Point golfer wore down his opponent down over the next three holes and banked victory at Leopard Creek at the fourth hole of the sudden-death shoot-out.
The pandemic-induced nationwide lockdown may have put the brakes on what promised to be an extraordinary season for South African amateur golf, but the men’s and women’s squad members simply picked up where they left off when the provincial championships resumed in October and excelled across nine World Amateur Golf Ranking events.
The season drew to a close with Whateley from Country Club Johannesburg and Randpark’s Turgut deadlocked at Mount Edgecombe after 54 holes and the Gauteng pair shared the spoils in the KZNLGA Nomads Junior Girls Championship this December to cap another great year for amateur golf.
Let’s take a look at our 2020 highlights.
OPEN AND JUNIOR CHAMPIONS
Caitlyn Macnab
Aon SA Women’s Stroke Play (Royal Johannesburg & Kensington Golf Club)
Aon SA Women’s Amateur Championships (Royal Johannesburg & Kensington Golf Club)
Ekurhuleni Open (Glendower Golf Club)
Kiera Floyd
Gauteng North Junior Girls Championship (Wingate Park Country Club)
North West Women’s Open (Pecanwood Golf & Country Club)
Mpumalanga Women’s Championship (Middelburg Country Club)
Kaiyuree Moodley
Leading Amateur – Investec South African Women’s Open (Westlake Golf Club)
WP Women’s Championship (Durbanville Golf Club)
Samantha Whateley & Kim Turgut
KZNLGA Nomads Girls Championship (Mount Edgecombe Country Club)
Kaylah Williams
Ackerman Championship (Clovelly Country Club)
Kera Healey
Nomads South African Juniors International Girls (Rondebosch Golf Club)
Kyra van Kan
KwaZulu-Natal Stroke Play Championship (Durban Country Club)
Demi Flanagan
Border & Eastern Province Championship (East London Golf Club)
Casey Jarvis
South African Stroke Play Championship (Randpark Golf Club)
Aon South African Amateur Championship (Royal Johannesburg & Kensington)
Free State Open (Heron Banks Golf Club)
Gauteng North Open (Centurion Country Club)
Leading amateur & Freddie Tait Cup winner in the SA Open (Gary Player Country Club)
Yurav Premall
North West Open (Potchefstroom Golf Club)
Harry Oppenheimer Trophy (Maccauvlei)
Central Gauteng Open (Kyalami Country Club)
Christiaan Maas
Nomads Inland National Order of Merit 1 (Benoni Country Club)
GNGU Silver Salver (Irene Country Club)
Sam Simpson
Proudfoot Trophy winner in the Stroke Play Qualifier for the Aon SA Amateur Championship (Royal Johannesburg & Kensington Golf Club
Eastern Province Stroke Play (Wedgewood Golf Club)
Martin Vorster
African Amateur Stroke Play Championship (Leopard Creek)
Rorisang Nkosi
Nomads SA Under-15 Championship (Mbombela Golf Club)
Jordan Duminy
Bobby Locke Invitational (Parkview Golf Club)
Christo Lamprecht
Cape Province Open (George Golf Club)
Carl Mwale
Nomads South African Juniors International Boys (Rondebosch Golf Club)
Ayden Senger
Nomads Coastal National Order of Merit 1 (Mount Edgecombe)
MID-AMATEUR MAGIC
Vicki Traut
The Erinvale golfer celebrated back-to-back victories in the SA Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship with a wire-to-wire performance at Robertson Golf Club.
Gina Da Silva
Gauteng North Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship (Wingate Park Country Club)
North West Mid-Amateur Championship (Pecanwood Golf & Country Club)
Nina Grey
Western Province Mid-Amateur Championship (Durbanville Golf Club)
Millie Zim-Dondashe
Border & Eastern Province Mid-Amateur Championship (East London Golf Club)
Liezl Smit
Leading Mid-Amateur in the Kwazulu-Natal Championships (Durban Country Club)
Heidi van den Berg
Ekurhuleni Mid-Amateur Championship (Glendower Golf Club)
Ryan Dreyer and Gerlou Roux
Central Gauteng Mid-Amateur Open (Bryanston Country Club)
Jacques van Tonder
Gauteng North Mid-Amateur Open (Pretoria Country Club)
Gerlou Roux
Border Mid-Amateur Open (West Bank Golf Club)
A PEAK AT THE 50-PLUS POOL
Greg Gleeson
Gauteng North Senior Open (Waterkloof Golf Club)
Central Gauteng Senior Open (Wanderers Golf Club)
Gordon Wessels
Senior Players Championship (Kingswood Golf Estate)
Ekurhuleni Senior Open (ERPM Golf Club)
Stanley de Beer
Western Province Senior Open (Rondebosch Golf Club)
Limpopo Senior Amateur Open (Koro Creek Golf Club)
Sonja Bland
The Fancourt golfer became the first three-time winner of the LGU Quaich Senior Trophy with her third successive victory in the senior division of the SA Mid-Amateur Championship.
Pieter Cooper
Free State Senior Open (Parys Golf Club)
AP Kuiper
Boland Senior Open (Hermanus Golf Club)
Morgan Phillips
KwaZulu-Natal Senior Classic (Durban Country Club)
Stephen Johnson
KwaZulu-Natal Senior Open (Umhlali Country Club)
Douglas McCabe
Otway Hayes Senior Classic (Zwartkop Country Club)
WHO TOPS THE 2020 RANKINGS?
Women’s Open Amateur – Caitlyn Macnab (Serengeti Estates)
Men’s Open Amateur – Casey Jarvis (State Mines Country Club)
Women’s Junior – Caitlyn Macnab (Serengeti Estates)
Men’s Junior Boys U-19 – Casey Jarvis (State Mines Country Club)
Men’s Junior Boys U-17 – Nash de Klerk (Pecanwood Golf & Country Club)
Men’s Junior Boys U-15 – Fabrizio de Abreu (Woodhill Country Club)
Women’s Mid-Amateur – Heidi van den Berg (Services Golf Club)
Men’s Mid-Amateur – Derek Scullard (CMR Golf Club)
Men’s Senior – Francois le Roux (De Zalze Golf Club)
PERFORMANCE RANKINGS
WOMEN – TOP 5
Caitlyn Macnab (Serengeti Estates)
Kaylah Williams (Durbanville Golf Club)
Kaiyuree Moodley (Bryanston Country Club)
Nadia van der Westhuizen (Serengeti Estates)
Samantha Whateley (Country Club Johannesburg)
MEN – TOP 5
Kyle de Beer (Port Elizabeth Golf Club)
Casey Jarvis (State Mines Country Club)
Yurav Premlall (Glendower Golf Club)
Sam Simpson (Royal Cape Golf Club)
Ryan van Velzen (Benoni Country Club)