Strong junior presence at Pick n Pay SA Womens IPT

Nelson Mandela Bay will be awash with the country’s top women golfers when the 53rd Pick n Pay SA Womens Inter-Provincial tees off at Port Elizabeth Golf Club from 24-27 September.

The 18-hole championship layout will provide the stage for four days of intense competition between 16 A- and B- Division teams contesting glory in the country’s largest national team championship.

“The Pick n Pay SA Women’s Inter-Provincial is one of women amateur golf’s Big Three championships,” said Womens Golf South Africa president, Cynthia Rayner.

“This tournament not only demands stamina and physical strength, but also mental fitness at the highest level and we can expect a week of spirited challenges, high quality golf and tense battles as our players resume their provincial rivalries on Tuesday.”

Rayner said the prestigious team championship showcases the undeniable talent of women golfers in South Africa and she is especially excited by the large quantity of junior players that will line up alongside the top ranked golfers in the country.

“Forty-two of the 80 players in the field are juniors which means 53% of the players in the line were born in 1995 or later,” Rayner said.

“This speaks volumes to the talent and standard of the junior golf development in South Africa, because every team in the A and B Divisions are chosen on merit.

“All the teams this year feature junior players and the Western Province B side are all juniors. This aligns perfectly with our and Pick n Pay’s vision for golf development through this event and reinforces the encompassing nature of this championship.”

Amanda Ogden from Ekurhuleni, Millie Dondashe from Border and Southern Cape’s Sonja Bland lead the senior line-up, while 12-year-olds Woo-Ju Son from Gauteng B and Crystal Beukes from Boland bookend the younger spectrum.

Son will line up with 14-year-old Ivanna Samu, 16-year-old Natasha Carlsson and senior Jacqui Ackers, while SAGDB’s Beukes joins three other juniors, including the country’s number one junior, Bianca Theron, as well as Bianca Lohbauer, Olivereen le Roux.

Among the other juniors joining in the action are the host union’s Imkeleen Meyer, Jamie-Lee Daniels and Tara Griebenow, Border’s Demi Flanagan and the Western Province A trio of Cara Gorlei, Kelly Erasmus and Ji Sun Kang.

Gauteng North, who will field two teams in the A-Division this year after winning both divisions in 2012, boasts five juniors between the two teams.

Gauteng North A and B, Boland, Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, North West and Western Province A will contest the A-Division for the Jean Tindall Memorial Trophy.

The B-Division teams that will challenge for the Nolan Karp Trophy and the coveted promotion include Border, Eastern Province, Free State & Northern Cape, Gauteng B, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Southern Cape and Western Province B.

Posted in