Teams primed for 50th SA IPT at Pretoria Country Club
The South African Golf Association will celebrate the 50th edition of its most prestigious amateur team event at Pretoria Country Club from 20-24 September 2010.
“Over the last 50 years, the South African Inter Provincial has provided a wonderful platform to promote the traditions of the game, encouraging competition, camaraderie, fair play and friendship,” said SAGA president, Enver Hassen.
“This year’s tournament coincides with the centenary celebrations of one of the finest courses in the country. We are delighted to celebrate this milestone in our 100 year history with the members of Pretoria Country Club.”
Although the esteemed club has played host to several prominent professional and amateur events, this year marks only the second time it will host the annual South African Inter Provincial. Substantial upgrades in the last nine years have dramatically changed the layout where Central Gauteng delivered the prizewinning performance in 2001.
The comparatively flat nature of the 18-hole championship layout, dusted with close to a 100 bunkers, is widely acknowledged as one of the more difficult and demanding courses in the country. The cunningly sited bunkers, water hazards and pins tucked away on postage stamp sized greens make up for its lack of gradient and the course will demand accuracy and extreme control from the 13 teams contesting for this year’s title.
The tournament is split into two sections, with six teams contesting the A-Section and seven the B-Section. Each team comprises eight players.
The competition format will include four foursome matches played in the morning, followed by eight singles matches in the afternoon, over the five days of the tournament.
In each section, the teams in will play each other once and, with each match counting one point, the team winning more than six points per match, wins.
The team leading the points table in each section at the end of the tournament will win the respective section. The B-Section winner gains promotion to the A-Section and the team finishing last in the A-Section is relegated.
Defending champions KwaZulu-Natal will lead the A-Section charge after striking gold for the seventh time last year. Barely 12 months after they had clawed their way to A-Section promotion by winning the B-Section in Hermanus in 2008, the men in black was victorious at Durban Country Club.
In their opening match at Pretoria Country Club, the East Coast side will battle newcomers Southern Cape, making their debut in the top draw.
Having fought for many years to gain independence from Eastern Province, Southern Cape showed depth well beyond their years in their B-Section debut last year and won all but one of their matches to gain promotion to the A-Section.
Free State & Northern Cape, Boland, Western Province and Central Gauteng complete the A-Section.
Gauteng-North will battle for promotion after relegation last year and loom as the clear favourites in the B-Section.
But for the tournament hosts to achieve this, the team has to exploit their home course advantage cunningly to perform convincingly against Border, the Eastern Province, Ekurhuleni, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Northwest.
Click here to go to the tournament website