The NMMU-Madibaz golfers made a clean sweep of the titles on offer as they dominated the University Sport South Africa tournament at Humewood in Port Elizabeth last week.
The Madibaz-NMMU A and B teams which captured the team titles at the USSA golf tournament were,
back row, from the left: Brendon Timm (manager), Johan Coetzer, Wihan Kleyn, Jacques Smith, Luke Jerling, Mike Usendorff; front row, from the left: Colin Baldie, Hando Brophy, Steve Dent, Michael Maybery. Photo: Karl du Preez
Following Luke Jerling’s triumph in the individual strokeplay event, the Madibaz golfers went on to end University of Pretoria’s domination of the A division by winning the premier title, while their B side triumphed in the B division.
The Madibaz A team also claimed the strokeplay title earlier in the week with rounds of 221 and 218 to top the standings.
To add to their accolades, Madibaz captain Colin Baldie received the Most Valuable Player award in the A division.
It is 28 years since the Port Elizabeth varsity took the Cup Champions honours. The class of 2016, comprising Baldie, Jerling, Jacques Smith and Michael Mayberry, defeated Tuks 4-2 in the final to end the Pretoria team’s six-year reign in the A division.
NMMU A took a 1.5-1 lead into the singles and Baldie led from the front in the singles as he crushed Marco Loubser 8/7 to put the home team in the driver’s seat.
Smith defeated Ryan Lane 3/2, but Andrew van der Knaap pulled one back for Tuks when he defeated Maybery by the same margin.
Jerling sealed the victory by halving the final game against Combrink Smit.
The B division final was a much closer contest and it took a play-off to decide the winners. NMMU B’s Hando Brophy wrapped it up for his team when he defeated Eben-Paul Zietsman (North West University A) at the first play-off hole.
The teams were level at 1-1 after the foursomes and the deadlock remained after Johan Coetzer and Brophy won their singles for NMMU B, only to be countered by NWU wins by Philip Niemand and Wynand Potgieter.
In the sudden-death playoff on the first hole, Brophy produced two fine shots into the wind to reach the green, while Zietsman could only produce a double bogey and conceded victory.
“The eight players and Mike Usendorff, who was injured just before the championship, worked incredibly hard for this and deserve the win,” said NMMU team manager Brendon Timm.
“This started two years ago when we adopted a more professional approach to our preparations. It showed last year when we came fifth and eighth in the A division.”
Timm said these sorts of results would encourage local players in the amateur ranks to study at NMMU and “to compete for a chance to play with the champions”.