The Nelson Mandela Championship!

Tour Diary

This really should be a special week, not only for me getting to play on the European Tour, but with the passing of South Africa’s national hero Nelson Mandela.

How poignant that this week on the European Tour, where the event is named after him, is actually the week of his funeral. With that being the case, the event has now been brought forward to a Wednesday start, as the funeral is planned for Sunday.

Whoever wins this week, and especially if it’s a South African, I’m sure it will be extra special.

So, knowing at the close of entries for the event (3 weeks prior) that I was 25th reserve, I had a sneaky feeling I may have a chance to play . . . and as the days went by and it got closer and closer, it was looking tighter and tighter!

As it was getting closer, I rushed off to ‘Tour X’ in Warrington to see my good friend Nick Hibbs. He sorts out any club issues I have and I needed to fine tune and compare my new Mizuno irons with my old ones!

They are pure!!!

– As they say … “Nothing feels like a Mizuno”.

So, by Saturday afternoon I was down to 4th reserve and with Sunday the only realistic chance of flying and making it in good, sensible time, I had one last hope.

The week’s tournament prior to SA was Hong Kong and the PGA always hold back some places in case non exempt players finish in the top 10 the week prior. Depending on who finished where would make all the difference . . .

I took the chance; Sunday morning I set off on my travels to Heathrow. Whilst I was driving, Duncan (MB Partners, my management company) was constantly on the phone to the Tour trying to assess the situation.

As I passed Northampton I got the call: “Chris, you’re in!” – so Duncan then booked my seat on the plane and I passed a bit of time down in London at my good friend Colin Roope’s prior to a 9pm flight.

I’m now writing this at the start of an 11 hour flight to Johannesburg, followed by a short flight to Durban.

(I actually got to watch the Mandela film ‘Invictus,’ which was quite fitting and very moving!).

The connection was not quite as simple as expected; long delays in Jo’burg airport meant having to run to customs, pushing through there and then running to baggage to collect my clubs, followed by a mad dash to check in!

I made it in time to then find out the flight was cancelled and we had been put on the next flight an hour later – so not too bad in the end!

On landing it was straight into a BMW 7 series courtesy car (life on European Tour!) to the golf course and time for some practice!

– Delighted to be here ‘living the golfers dream’

After a good few hours of tired practice I got off to sleep by 9pm, as my alarm was set for 5am to get 18 holes played in the morning before the pro-am.

Playing with Adam Gee and Stuart Manley, who had just lost the week before to Jimenez in a playoff, we got round pretty dry before the heavens opened in the afternoon.

The weather really was shocking, and to let you know how bad, I am updating this blog at the golf course Wednesday morning prior to the 1st round.

My alarm set for 4am, I arrived at the course for 5.15am to then find out we had a 3 hour delay in order to let the course dry out from last night’s rain!

That was soon followed by another 2 hour delay, and another 2 hour delay – so a 7 hour delay in total and I then teed off at 1.30pm and managed to play all 18 before it got dark.

– This is what I got up to in the rain delay! Oh, and some practice . . .

– Putting drill, making sure to get the ball through the tee peg gate.

It was then looking like a 4pm tee off the following day, but after watching rain, rain, and more rain at breakfast, I soon had another text from the Tour cancelling play for the day and players then had to restart the following morning at 6am.

My second round tee time now (hopefully) being 12pm on Friday!

I can’t actually see that happening!!!!

I was right; I woke up to another text of a 3 hour delay . . . so I finally got to the course and teed off at 3pm knowing that we would not complete our round.

I played pretty solid and managed to get it to -3 with two holes to go. I now had to sleep on the fact that I had two holes to play and at worse I HAD to par them both to have a chance of making the cut, a birdie would hopefully seal it!

The restart the following morning was 6am on the course, so a 3.50am alarm for my short gym routine to try and wake me up and then on the 4.30am shuttle to the golf course.

The 8th was a realistic birdie chance and after a great drive I hit a quality 3 wood to the back edge of the green and 2 putted to get to -4 and -2 total!

I scrappy par on the par 3 9th saw me make the cut by a couple of shots and I was back in the clubhouse for my second breakfast of the day . . . it was only 6.45am.

A last round of 72 (+2) saw me slip a little down the pack to T64th but still a nice week, and I’m so glad I took the last minute chance to get out to South Africa.

– trophy shot, and someone tweeted me the picture off the TV haha!

(Tournament cut to 54 holes)

NOW GET ME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS WITH MY FAMILY!!

Just the 20 hours of travelling to go!

As always, thanks again for the fantastic support!

Chris

Here are a few facts on Durban….

– soon learnt that their rainy season had moved to November/December

– and as you can guess, Durban is very ‘green’

– they have a massive car trade here, building parts for companies like Toyota

– sugar cane and bananas are a huge industry

– the wildlife is pretty special here (as the photos show)

– Durban City is twinned with Leeds

Last modified: June 3, 2019