This game of ours continuously proves to be ‘the greatest leveller’ during any round we play. But the upsides of simply being a golfer outweigh them all.
From seeing our friends in the car park before a round, to laughing with them at our own on-course misfortunes in the locker room; let alone acknowledging the fact that to all intents and purposes, we compete against each other on the Sunshine Tour, yet spend a lot of our time on the practice area helping each other.
There really is no other sport like it. Whichever circumstance or good fortune brought you into this game, I am sure that, like me, you feel blessed.
It has been nearly two years since I last played a Tour event. Travel restrictions, coupled with the financial risk of spending thousands on flights, accommodation, caddie fees (and the rest), to be just one nose swab away from a DQ and isolation has simply never stacked up. During this time, naturally my focus went into other areas within the golf industry and next month I hope to share details of an exciting course design project we are kickstarting this year.
Recently I found the spark again, or more to the point, the spark found me. While conducting player assessments for our Leadbetter Academy Class of 2022, I was contacted by a young girl from Mutare, near the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border. I didn’t know this at the time, but Kudzi Mandava boarded a bus to Harare the next day, with $5 to her name.
Once the bus arrived, we met at Royal Harare but after a few minutes of light conversation, it started to rain quite heavily. I offered Kudzi another time which suited her during her stay in Harare, but she replied, ‘I don’t mind hitting balls in the rain.’
Stunned and intrigued, I resisted my need to seek shelter in that moment and walked with her through a sheet of rain to a hitting bay. The picture of who Kudzi was and where she had come from started to become clearer when she put on a ripped glove, which barely covered three of the fingers on her left hand.
Three things stood out: how Kudzi hit the ball, that golf is a level playing field and her message.
– This column first appeared in the February 2022 issue of Compleat Golfer magazine. Subscribe here!
