SA Mid-Amateur players tee off at Kingswood next week

The second Kingswood SA Mid-Amateur Championship will be played next week. Pictured here are three of the favourites to win the event – Gilly Tebbutt, Sandra Winter and Lynn Behagg.

After the recent SA Women’s Inter-Provincial played at George Golf Club, the spectacular town of George plays host to yet another SA Women’s event. Kingswood Golf Estate is the venue for the second 2011 SA Mid-Amateur Championship, a national tournament for women golfers aged 35 and over being played from Monday 7 to Wednesday 9 November.

Kingswood Golf Estate and KeNako Golf & Sports Academy hosted the inaugural event when it was played in November 2010 and was so successful that the handicap limit was extended to 24 and expanded to three divisions this year.

This year, players have entered from as far afield at Rustenburg, Kimberley, Welkom, Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Vryheid, Durban, East London, Port Elizabeth, Langebaan, Malmsbury, Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Strand and Paarl. We welcome Claudia Johnson, who now plays at Royal Hobart in New Zealand, Brigitte Klüger recently arrived from Germany and Liz Keller from the UK.

One of the favourites to win the championship is former South African Stroke Play and Match Play Champion, Gilly Tebbutt, but current provincial players, Lynn Behagg and Maggie Minnie (Boland), Kate Brett-Castle and Rose Powell (KZN), Liz Keller and Sandra Winter (Southern Cape) and Border’s Millie Zim will all be challenging Gilly for top honours.

The championship has a record entry of 114 players – 25 in the 9 and under championship division, 62 in the 10 to 18 handicap division, and another 27 players in the stableford 19 to 24 handicap division.

Womens Golf South Africa will run the tournament but Kingswood Golf Estate is sponsoring the course, providing golf carts for all players and assist WGSA with general back-up. Well known for its pot bunkers, Kingswood offers golfers an incredible challenge as well as some magnificent views of the surrounding mountains.

The official Opening Ceremony will be hosted at KeNako Golf and Sports Academy. The academy offers golfers of all ages golfing programmes that are unique in South Africa, including technical, physical, mental and eye training and coaching. For ladies interested in general Health and Wellness, KeNako has a team of professionals that focus on this aspect of life.

On each evening entertainment and fun has been organised to ensure socialising does not take a back seat! Players may bring their cowboy boots and hat for the gala dinner and enjoy the scrumptious barnyard style cuisine. All in all it promises to be an awesome golfing get away.

Sponsors for 2011 are: Kingswood Golf Estate, WGSA, Aquabella Natural Spring Water, Golfers Club George, PING SA, DKNY, Rhebokskloof Wine Estate, SWAGG, Protea Hotel King George, KeNako Golf & Sports Academy.

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