Stenson Takes The Million Nedbank Million Dollar

Firstly I would like to appologise for not writing in the last two weeks. I was away in Sun Cityto watch the Nedbank Million Dollar Golf Challenge. We spend eight glorious days in Sun Cityand the beautiful Pilanesberg. The only down side… it was hot. 35c Plus every day, and the sun is relentless. It never gives you a break.

By Wednesday the day before the golf I was having second thoughts about walking the Gary Play Country Club for four days. Would I have enough sun block, how much liquid must I take with me? To be fair, I have never walked a course in a tournament before and it was my first time in Sun City, so I did not know what to expect.

Thursday morning arrived and off we went the family to Cabanas Resort for the day and Onetime off to golf. We caught or bus and got dropped off where we needed to be. After walking through the Golf Expo Tent and being swarmed by pretty little ladies in short skirts and high heels trying to see everything, from time share to golf equipment, one of them not even knowing, what a rescue was.

She thought I was talking about “rescue” for a hang over. I got to the security check to enter. I was promptly told no cell phones and I had to hand mine in. This proved to be a problem later as my wife could get hold of me, missed call and text messages. She thought I was giving her the bird. Once I got in it was time to get liquid refreshments.

Cold drinks to start with and the long walk down the first fairway to the stands behind the green. Clever me I was there an hour before kick off, blazing sun, metal stands, and the temp went from 28c to 35c in 60 minutes.

Onto the tee box was James Kingston and Miguel Angel Jimenez, climbed into the balls and put then straight down the fairway. The second shots put them both within birdie range but that was not to be.

Both players were very unlucky and had these puts gone down, it may have changed their scores for the Challenge. The next 8 holes was a blur of running for that good spot, dodging other spectators, getting lost and then finding the course. After 120 minutes of this the first 9 was complete.

The interesting thing about this format of golf, there was 33 cameras on course, every two ball of which there was six had two camera men following them. There is a mini production producer with each two balls, including two sound persons. Then there are the GSP markers, two guys that follow the balls around. They stand over each ball and give the GSP position of where it lies.

This then gives the exact distance from ball to pin and also whether the ball is in fairway or not or even in a hazard. So there is no escape for the players. There are six mobile marshals that walk with each pair, over and above the fixed marshals around each green. The logistics involved is amazing.

There were television cables running the full length of the course through every hole, in river streams, under drainage ditches even going from fairway to fairway via the bushveld bush. With the dangers of Mambas, Cobras and Boomslangs I am glad I am not the person running the cable through there (two years ago a spectator got bitten by a snake while watching the golf).

Well after 9nineholes the roaming fearless reporter Onetime, walked into some golfing buddies. This was a problem as we ended up gate crashing one of the Nedbank tents, cooling down in the shad, drinking ice cold beer and watching the golf on TV, everytime we went for a beer. We did decide that we had to finish up the afternoons play so we took a walk along the 18th, to the 16th green, in hope of seeing a hole in one.

This never happened, but all in all it was a fantastic day. My only complaint, it there are many spectators that have no idea about golf etiquette and the sooner South African learn this the better. Looking at what I saw, they were very close to the Americans, “Get in the hole”.

Congratulations to Hendrik Stemson on a great win by nine shots. Just four shots shy of the Big Easy’s 25 under par. The leader board is below:

Pos	Name	Score	Hole	Today	Rnd1	Rnd2	Rnd3	Rnd4	Total
1	Henrik Stenson	-21	18	-4	63	71	65	68	267
2	Kenny Perry	-12	18	-7	73	70	68	65	276
3	Robert Karlsson	-9	18	E	72	68	67	72	279
4	Rory Sabbatini	-8	18	-2	68	70	72	70	280
5	Sergio Garcia	-4	18	-2	72	70	72	70	284
	Lee Westwood	-4	18	E	70	72	70	72	284
7	KJ Choi	-2	18	+2	72	67	73	74	286
	James Kingston	-2	18	-5	72	77	70	67	286
9	Justin Rose	+2	18	E	73	73	72	72	290
10	Trevor Immelman	+3	18	+5	72	73	69	77	291
11	Luke Donald	+4	18	+3	72	74	71	75	292
12	Miguel Angel Jimenez	+5	18	-3	75	76	73	69	293

Onto the rugby and has the IRB Sevens not just been fantastic for the Springboks. WOW what a start. A victory of England in Dubai and then a back to back final win over New Zealandin George this past weekend. The Springboks where magnificent and the good news for Paul Treu is that he is keeping the whole squad for the season. So thing should be a lot more consistent for the Boks Seven side this season!

I have not had much time for any other sports, to catch up on. I will be doing one last full report next Monday and that should be the last for the year. I might have the odd quick up date for you regarding the cricket down under, but being in a place with no cell or 3G connections, I will catch up where I can.

Until Monday take care sports fans.

ONETIME

Think beyond the horizon and you will find success!