US College students to compete in the 72 Hole Teams Championship

Five US College students are among the 72 provincial players to compete in the WGSA 72 Hole Teams Championships at Polokwane Golf Club this week.

The players are Claudia Redinger (KwaZulu Natal), Rushda Mallick (Western Province), Yushira Budhram (Gauteng), Lynn-Marié Nagel (Limpopo) and Elise Strutt (Border) pictured here.

All five are delighted to be back, enjoying the sunny, windless autumn conditions of Limpopo, but have no regrets at the future they have chosen in the USA.

Elise did not receive a good South African welcome when she was suspected of being a drug mule on arrival at OR Tambo and after all her goods were unpacked and repacked, she only just made her connection to East London.

She is hoping to achieve a solid degree in psychology and biology at Jackson State University in Alabama and after graduating in another three years, will work in one of these fields.

“I absolutely love it and did not want to come home”, she said and the look she gave confirmed that she had left someone special back in Alabama.

Claudia Redinger is studying Business Management at Stetson University in Florida and hopes to graduate in 2014. She is the only international student on her team of five but looking forward to a Hungarian joining in the next semester. She also had contact with Rushda Mallick, Lynn-Marié Nagel and Fabien Harems at various events.

She did say that she found the courses very long but is really benefitting from the fantastic competition. She hopes to return to her family business after graduating and then run her own company.

Rushda Mallick loves her life in America and will work there after graduation and then hopefully to turn pro. She is studying Business Marketing, PR and Liability studies at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti and received a great welcome from her coach. “ I was then taken to a first team get-together and we all just clicked”. The team includes two Americans, four Canadians, one Thai and Rushda. She has a great coach who assists the players with the mental side of golf, but her swing coach is still Wayne Bradley.

The weather is a factor and during the two coldest winter months, the players hit off mats at an indoor facility and the season starts again in February.

Yushira Budhram is about to move from Chattanooga to Michigan State University where there is a more structured programme. She is studying Psychology and Business and hopes to specialize in Industrial Psychology. She wants to stay in the USA and play on the Futures Tour, leading to the LPGA. Who can forget Yushira at every players’ meeting in the years before she went to the US, asking for more loos on the course. Since then, WGSA had not run a single event without extra facilities on the course and Yushira’s very first comment when interviewed was that she had noticed an extra loo on the course at Polokwane!!

Lynn-Marié Nagel enjoys a very interesting change in culture and religion at Utah Valley University which is situated an hour south of Salt Lake City. She stands up for what she believes in this Mormon based environment and has also benefitted from crossing language barriers.

She is studying International Business Management and her goal is to work with people across cultures and in the USA and Africa and hopes to go on to graduate school. She is open-minded and after graduating will go wherever her path leads.

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