Former Proteas batsman JP Duminy is an avid golfer and is using the game to strengthen the ties in his JP21 Foundation, writes ANDRE HUISAMEN in the January issue of Compleat Golfer.
What is your favourite club in your golf bag?
It has to be my TaylorMade SIM driver. It is a beast! It is working really well.
What are your three favourite courses in South Africa?
My No 1 would definitely be Pearl Valley. Second would be Steenberg and third I would say is Clovelly.
What are some of your favourite courses overseas you played during Proteas tours?
I have played many. I have had the great privilege of playing the Old Course at St Andrews, which was a pretty cool experience. I have played a few courses in the United Kingdom, West Indies, New Zealand, Australia – all those places we have travelled to.
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Your all-time favourite golfer?
Tiger Woods, without a doubt!
How significant are your foundation’s golf days?
This will be our fifth year, in terms of having annual golf days and they are our flagship fundraiser so that is where we try to raise as much money as we can. The main aim of the foundation is to revive the game of cricket within the Mitchells Plain and Strandfontein communities. That is where I grew up and, as with most golf days, it is an opportunity to network, to get to know people in the corporate space and to see if they are willing and able to invest in what we do.
How has the reaction been?
At those golf days, we share our vision of what we do and what our plan is. We have had some great success with it. This year we have gone a Ryder Cup route for the format of the golf day. From its inception the biggest contributors have been Nutribullet and PPC. They have walked a journey with us for five or six years. TaylorMade and Adidas have been a great help; basically everyone I have built up a relationship with over my playing days has come on board to help out.
What is the biggest resemblance between golf and cricket?
I think it is just the mental capacity. When you don’t believe or trust your swing, more times than not you are not going to pull it off and it is similar in cricket when there is a lack of believe or positivity or confidence – that’s where things don’t tend to work out. Even more so in golf. Golf is such a technical game, you can be off by 0.5% and something doesn’t quite work.
What is your lowest round?
74! That actually in September so that’s why I’am saying the SIM driver changed my game.
DUMINY BIO
JP Duminy is one of South Africa’s most popular cricketers. He played 46 Tests, along with 199 ODIs and 81 T20Is, before retiring in July 2019. He averaged 32 with the bat in Tests, 36 in ODIs and 38 in T20Is and took 132 wickets with his off-spin. In 2015 he established the JP21 Foundation, which is based on a commitment to reigniting the passion and enthusiasm for cricket in underprivileged communities and schools, particularly in the Western Cape areas of Mitchells Plain and Strandfontein.
