SAGA announce President’s Team

Louis CalitzThe South African Golf Association (SAGA) announced the names of eight players for the President’s Team to play in the inaugural SADC Armature Open Championship. This amateur golf event will be played at the Lusaka Golf Club, Zambia, from 2nd to 3rd August 2008.

“The team represents some of our talented young players who will be exposed to international competition for the first time,” said Neale Kunhardt, President of the SAGA who will also be the team’s manager.

The highest ranked player in the team on the current SAGA Player Rankings is 20 year old Mpumalanga amateur Coenie Bester. He is in 10th place, one ahead of 21 year Jake Redman, who plays out of Fancourt, who was also selected.

The team includes 22 year Schoeman Park Golf Club member, Louis Calitz. The young Free Stater won the Proudfoot Trophy at the Glacier SA Amateur, played at Royal Durban Golf Club in March this year, as the leading qualifier in a 36 hole stroke play competition.

Three members of the Ernie Els & Fancourt Foundation will experience international competition for the first time, they are 20 year old Calvin Coelho (Kwazulu Natal), 19 year old Keenan Davidse (Boland) and 19 year old Trevor Mahoney (Boland).

According to Kunhardt, this new African event on the international calendar is in all likelihood going to be an annual competition hosted in the country in which the chairman of the South African Development Community (SADC) resides. The incumbent chairman of the SADC is Zambian President Levy Manawasa who will host the inaugural competition next month.

The format of the competition is similar to the annual Zone VI. On the first day teams will play foursomes in the morning and then betterball in the afternoon. On the second, and final day, all teams play singles. Members of each participating team take on players from different countries in each of the three formats. Countries earn points based on the result of each match, a win is worth one point. The team scoring the most number of points on conclusion of the competition will be declared the winner.

The President’s team is:
Coenie Bester (Centurion C.C., Mpumalanga);
Louis Calitz (Schoeman Park G.C., Free State & Northern Cape);
Calvin Coelho (Royal Durban G.C., Kwazulu Natal);
Keenan Davidse (Stellenbosch G.C., Boland);
MJ Daffue (Waterkloof G.C., Gauteng North);
Trevor Mahoney (Wellington G.C., Boland);
Jake Redman (Fancourt, Southern Cape);
PG van Zyl (Witbank G.C., Mpumalanga).

The team manager is Neale Kunhardt and assistant manager is Neil Homann, Assistant Executive Director of the SAGA.

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