Gallery
GRAAFF-REINET NEWS — The 21st Proudfoot Tournament was held at the Graaff-Reinet Golf Course from Thursday, March 16 to Saturday, March 18.
The course was immaculate and drew many compliments. This can be attributed to the tireless efforts of the Club Captain Johnny Ludick and his team.
A total of 270 rounds of golf were played with 100 golfers participating in the field on the final day.
Golfers from Somerset West, Plettenberg Bay, Port-Elizabeth, Beaufort-West, Victoria-West, De Aar and Bloemfontein joined local golfers in what turned out to be a very special tournament.
A tournament of this nature cannot be arranged successfully without the support of the Club’s sponsors.
The first day of the tournament was sponsored by N1 Construction and the Club is extremely grateful to Petrus and Ilse Botha for their support. Day 2 of the tournament was sponsored by the family of the late Reg Holmes and gratitude is expressed to Gavin and Sharon Harvey, Gavin and Gary Holmes for their generosity. The family also sponsored a new floating trophy, the Reg Holmes floating trophy which was awarded to the best 4-ball over the three days. The third day was sponsored by Spandau Spar and gratitude is expressed to Frikkie Coetzee and Hansie Jordaan for their continued support over the last decade or so.
The Golf Club also was grateful for the sponsorships of Van Wyk Theron, PSG, Anton van Rensburg of Riverside Convenience Centre and Fly Karoo.
Each evening golfers and their partners were served dinner and entertained with some live music. On Thursday night music was supplied by Nick Steyn and Wendy Brussow, and on Friday night guests were entertained by local artist Le Clue. On Saturday night the well-known La Petit entertained guests.
Special meals with a strong Karoo flavour were supplied under the tireless supervision of Moira Light and her team. The Club is grateful to Inge Verheul of the Coldstream Restaurant and Klaas Zandberg of Kamdeboo Supermeat for their contribution to enabling the Club to produce quality meals.
The efforts of the Club's manager Johan Danielson and Anton Homveld are also acknowledged with thanks.
Tournament director, Eddie Nel organised quality prizes and the winners on each day of the tournament received very valuable prizes with a fourth prize-giving for overall winners on that Saturday. Prizes in value exceeding R 34 000 were awarded.
While the organisers are very grateful for the local support, they are particularly grateful for the many visitors that supported the tournament and made a contribution to the local economy and in particular the accommodation industry.
The tournament was played on an IPS format and the winner on Day 1 was C Cloete on 46 points.
The best 4-ball was awarded the Solomon Cup and comprised of R Coetzee, G Fourie, N Claassen and J Dreyer with 143 points.
The winner on Day 2 was local golfer Richard Swartz on 42 points and on Day 3 the winner was Naldo Claassen (Eastern Province Number 1 golfer) on 40 points.
The best 4-ball on Day 3 won the Spar prize and was N Claassen, G Fourie, R Coetzee and J Dreyer on 138 points. They were also the winners of the Reg Holmes floating trophy for the best 4-ball of the tournament on 420 points.
The overall individual winner and holder of the Proudfoot Trophy 2017 is Richard Swartz.
The Graaff-Reinet Golf Club is particularly proud of the level of golf played by local golfers in a field where there was very stiff competition.
Tank Coetzee and Garth Cloete were awarded honorary life membership of the Graaff-Reinet Golf Club.
In thanking sponsors and saying goodbye to their guests at the conclusion of the tournament the President of the Golf Club, Derek Light made the following remarks in his address: “We live in a beautiful country with beautiful people faced with many challenges. While Politicians and lawyers face-off in the Courts, our communities are made up with real people, with real lives. We as individuals must contribute to the health and welfare of our own communities. Healthy and happy communities make up a healthy country.
Sport is important in promoting the values of a community, unity of our diverse population and its general health and welfare. It is for this reason that this Club is important and we must not only preserve it but seek to improve what it has to offer. This requires of its members and the greater community involvement in a really meaningful way and I thank those individuals that this year has made such a meaningful contribution to the success of this tournament.”
The Proudfoot Tournament 2017 was a huge success and will doubtlessly grow in stature over the years to come.
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