Revenge on Kenya’s home turf

South Africa were surprisingly beaten by Kenya in Botswana during the 2010 Africa Zone VI Championship, an amateur golf tournament involving teams of eight players.

So it was sweet revenge for the South African team in 2011 as they took on Kenya in their back yard and beat them. This year’s four round championship, concluded today, was staged at the Nyali Golf and Country Club in Mombasa, Kenya. In all ten African countries were represented. .

The host nation went into today’s final round just 1.5 points behind South Africa. There was everything to play for, the format of day being singles. In this competition each member of a team plays one member of another participating team. Thus in today’s singles effective South Africa played against eight countries. Each match carrying one point.

The match everyone expected would decide the outcome was that between Kenyan Stefan Andersen and South African Stroke Play Champion Jared Harvey. If South Africa lost this, it effectively reduced the deficit to just 0.5 of a point.

As it turned out Harvey prevailed beating the experienced Kenyan 2 up.

The other match the South African team were concerned about in today’s final round was that between CJ du Plessis and the very talented Scott Vincent of Zimbabwe. Despite du Plessis’s best efforts the Zimbabwean prevailed 3 and 2. With Harvey having won his match this set back did not end up having much bearing on the final outcome.

Of the other South Africans, all but Coenie Bester won their matches. Bester went down to Swazi Arther Horne (Jnr) 4 and 2.

With Kenya having lost one match and halving another, they could not close the gap on the leaders this despite scoring more points than South Africa in the final round, 6.5 points to 6.

South Africa ended up with a total of 20 points accumulated over four rounds of golf, one clear of Kenya. Tanzania and Zimbabwe followed both with 13 points.

The tournament was organized by the Kenyan Golf Union and supported by the R&A.

Africa Zone VI Golf Championship

Nyali Golf & Country Club, Mombasa, Kenya

Singles – Friday 15 April 2011

South African Team Scores:

(South African players mentioned first)

Coenie Bester lost to Arthur Horne (Jnr) (Swaziland) 4 and 2

Jared Harvey beat Stefan Andersen (Kenya) 2 up

Hendre Cilliers beat Diqe Fumo (Mozambique) 7 and 6

Daniel Hammond beat M Roka (Malawi) 5 and 4

CJ du Plessis lost to Scott Vincent (Zimbabwe) 3 and 2

Ryan Dreyer beat N Desai (Botswana) 5 and 4

Ruan de Smidt beat G Stanley (Namibia) 6 and 5

Riekus Nortje beat M Makala (Tanzania) 5 and 4

Points won: 6.0

Cumulative Points won: 20

Final Team Log:

(Position, Team, Singles, Foursomes, Betterball, Singles, Total points)

1, South Africa, 7.0, 4.0, 3.0, 6.0, 20.0

2, Kenya, 6.5, 2.0, 4.0, 6.5, 19.0

3, Tanzania, 4.5, 2.5, 1.0, 5.0, 13.0

4. Zimbabwe, 3.5, 2.0, 3.0, 4.5, 13.0

5. Namibia, 4.0, 3.0, 2.0, 3.5, 12.5

6, Swaziland, 3.0, 1.0, 3.0, 3.5, 10,5

7, Botswana, 2.0, 2.5, 2.0, 3.0, 9.5

8, Malawi, 4.0, 2,0, 0,3.0, 9.0

9, Zambia, 2.5, 1.0, 1.5, 4.0, 9.0

10, Mozambique, 3.0, 0, 0.5, 1.0, 4.5

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