The Royal Johannesburg & Kensington Golf Club successfully hosted a safe and secure event to kickstart the new Sunshine Tour season over the past weekend. ANDRE HUISAMEN chatted to club CEO Chris Bentley about the process of adapting in the unfamiliar circumstances.
Professional and amateur golf in South Africa have been in full motion for more than eight months since the initial nationwide lockdown was implemented.
It forced clubs to adjust and adopt new methods, pushing resources to the very limit of ultimate survival. But, as the new season kicked off for 2021, it was encouraging to see the desire of the Royal to use its position of strength to pave the way for the ‘new normal’.
The 2021 Sunshine Tour season is officially underway ?? pic.twitter.com/VT54zxU0FJ
— Compleat Golfer (@CompleatGolfer) March 5, 2021
‘In the beginning everything was just about health and safety, particularly the safety of our staff. You needed to strategise, all of the sudden you’re taking this massive knock on revenue,’ Bently explained.
‘At the same time we had this fight in our brains between social responsibility and economic responsibility. There was no operating manual for how to feel or how to plan. Collectively we did what we had to do.
‘We might have been in lockdown but we still had to keep these golf courses alive. We had our course manager and ten crew that stayed on site and a bunch of us come through to the club as much as we could, assisted where we could.
‘As a management team we said, “This is what the expected standard is, how are we going to create a sense of absolute safety?” Our approach was to implement all these safety measures, keep the staff safe, keep the members safe. The one thing I’m really proud of is that there’s been no on-site transmissions at Royal, which is remarkable in itself.’
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The nature of the game, however, allowed the sport in South Africa to thrive, while many other countries have prohibited social participation for months.
From amateur golf to the Rise-Up Series, to the ‘Summer Swing’ of the European Tour in December last year, South Africans have been fortunate to witness and participate without too much disruption.
‘Golf has set the tone as a safe sport and it allows naturally for social distancing. With all the restrictions in and around the clubhouse, people respect it and they’re just grateful that they can get out here and play golf. I’m immensely proud of our team and I’m proud of what Grant Hepburn and GolfRSA have done. The Sunshine Tour now, they are so strict and you have to be, it is just so important.
‘With events like these and day-to-day operations, your clubs that have the ability to adapt their operations, they’ll always be successful, so it is taking this positive approach. Safety first but we are going to get it done. I think that has been GolfRSA and the Sunshine Tour’s success. Despite everything that’s happened around us, you still want to take the physiological approach of “we are in control of our own destiny,”‘ Bentley added.
The approach and determination of a club like the Royal have provided the blueprint for what that ‘new normal’ looks like in reality.
The @Royal_JHB_Golf has been a superb host this week. ⛳️
The 2021 @Sunshine_Tour season has certainly started with a bang and an exciting day of golf awaits at the Kit Kat Group Pro-Am ?? pic.twitter.com/denjoQ81Ij
— Compleat Golfer (@CompleatGolfer) March 7, 2021
And, the first event has set a high standard to get the ball rolling in what promises to be an exciting couple of weeks on the Sunshine Tour.
‘For us, we haven’t had a tournament on the East course since the Joburg Open in 2017. I think the guys are hungry to get out. Courses are in incredible condition following all the rain we had this season. Our greenkeeper and his team have done an amazing job. So, all-round it ticks all the boxes.’
