BISCUIT ON BALLS

Category: Sportelizabeth

Date Added: 2 March 2010

PE ROCKS

PE ROCKS

Nelson Mandela Bay is a cool place to live. The Bisseker's moved lock stock and barrel from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth in 1979 and while the rest of the family ended up in the Western Cape I have remained right here in the 'capital' of the Eastern Cape. I was reminded of why I'd chosen this wonderful city as home just a few short weeks ago while standing on the first tee at Humewood Golf Club. Exactly two months after the opening of Humewood's new bent grass greens, I was finally getting an opportunity to play them for the first time.
So there we were, Willem Moolman, Pieter (Striker) Strydom and Bunter McCauley in the covey about to honour the 13h17 time and Bisseker, Brad Muller and Keith Simpson preparing to tee off at 13h26. Six old Greys and my partner on the day Clarendon Primary School principle Allan Lones all wondering what we'd done right to deserve this. Humewood is just about my most favourite place on earth on a gorgeous day and I'd pulled one of those for my first taste of the new links.  The seven of us paused for a moment to take in the sights of the majestic container ships on a glassy Algoa Bay and agreed then and there that maybe it was our former school mates now working all over the world that needed their heads examined, not us. Why would anyone possibly want to give this up and for what?

The new greens at the only true links in South Africa have been favourably received by everyone who has played them, most notably by Mr Golf in this country, Dale Hayes. During the course of our round, Brad shared the story of Dale standing up at the prize giving during his own golf day recently and saying that Humewood had always been a great course; but… As in, the greens are shocking. Now the 'but' has been removed said Dale.

Muller can't wait for the professionals to get a taste of the new greens which were so superbly designed by Sean Quinn of Golf Data. “The professionals will be here at the end of July for the Vodacom Business Origins of Golf Tour, Eastern Cape,” said Muller. “When they were here in 2008 the greens were on their last legs and the pros were unimpressed to say the least. Ironically, that week kick started the process of getting us to where we are today. The pros spread the word very quickly as to whether a course is worth visiting or not.” And if you're an amateur golfer in the Eastern Cape looking for a game at Humewood, there will be no better time to play than in the Humewood Festival of Links Golf which takes place from the 21st to the 24th of April.    
 
The drought crippling the Eastern Cape is literally burning up Port Elizabeth's golf courses with Humewood as dry as anywhere. The greens though, are fine as the club gets treated water from the Cape Recife water works. Greenkeeper Shaun Brits is not double cutting them, however, at the risk of them frying in the heat. Nevertheless, they are beautifully paced, every green the same speed. I found the quality of the surface so good that it instilled confidence not only in my putting, but also in my chipping which is nervy at the best of times.   

As a long-serving former President of Humewood, Keith Simpson is a great student of the game. He enjoyed many hours recently chatting to renowned author on links golf Malcolm Campbell who was out from the UK gathering material for a book he is publishing on all true links golf courses around the world. Of the 246 courses that Campbell will feature, Humewood is the only one on the Africa continent. “Malcolm has started a links association,” said Simpson. “He was telling me about a course they have built at Machrihanish in Scotland. It's a long term project but the idea is to let the natural grasses become the fairways with no machinery used in the building process what so ever. I would imagine the greens would have to be watered but the general idea is that the course would be completely self sustainable. With the ever increasing global demand for water, Campbell feels this could be the way of the future when it comes to the building of golf courses.” 
 
Humewood is but one of Port Elizabeth's finest sporting assets and while there are probably a good deal more than the ones I'm about to mention, how absolutely splendid is it to be able to enthuse about the all conquering Chevrolet Warriors and count the days to the next international fixture at the new Nelson Mandela Bay stadium. The Warriors have enjoyed one of their finest seasons in the past two decades and they're deserving of the magnificent crowds they're pulling to Axxess DSL St Georges. And so too, the EP Rugby team. I detected a new sense of purpose the moment Cheeky Watson took over and it could not have been better exemplified than with the turnout at the new stadium for the pre-season friendly against the Cheetahs. A crowd of 13-thousand for a friendly is unheard of and if they continue to play with that kind of passion and purpose, De Wet Barry's men can expect more of the same for the rest of the season.