LALI STANDER: R&A unclogs Africa’s Major pipeline with amateur championship

Two weeks ago I wrote about the clog in our Major pipeline on the Africa continent and here the R&A [Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in Scotland], have come along, bearing a huge plunger. 

On Wednesday the R&A announced the first African Amateur Championship to be played at Leopard Creek in 2024. 

The event, from February 21-24, will feature 72 men from the African region competing in a 72-hole stroke play format with the winner receiving an exemption in the 152nd Open at Royal Troon. The invitation-only event will also feature 20 elite women from Africa who will also be competing at the world-class venue during the week of the championship. 

Those are high stakes for Africa, and about time. 

After all, the winners of the US Amateur, European Amateur, Asia-Pacific Amateur and the Latin America Amateur events have had this pathway to the Open for many years. Hopefully, it might also eventually lead to an invitation to the Masters, seeing the US Amateur champion, Amateur champion and the winners of the Asia-Pacific Amateur and Latin American Amateur already tee it up at Augusta National.

The African Amateur Stroke Play Championship at Leopard Creek has actually been in existence since 2016 under the auspices of GolfRSA.

Annually drawing the top golfers from across Britain and Ireland, Sweden, France and India, among others, the championship celebrated SA winners such as Albert Venter (2016), James du Preez (2018), Martin Vorster (2020), recent Challenge Tour champion Casey Jarvis (2021 and 2022) and 2022 Amateur champion Aldrich Potgieter, who triumphed this year. In between, Scotsman Liam Johnstone (2017) and Euan Walker (2019) walked off with the spoils. 

GolfRSA can give themselves a pat on the back for the incredible amount of work done to raise a strong competitive platform with their SA Swing, which also includes the SA Amateur Championship and SA Stroke Play Championship, to give the rising African stars a leg-up in the game. You just can’t put a price on the experience gained over three weeks of playing golf at the highest level against top international competitors at world-class venues. 

But I say about time, because this is exactly what the African continent needs now. Taking this event to the next level is great for golf development.

Since the GolfRSA National Squad launched in SA with an initial funding of R10m from businessman Johann Rupert, the success of the programme has been indisputable. 

When Christo Lamprecht sunk the final putt to lift the 128th Amateur Championship title he became the third SA in the past four editions in which SA had representation to win one of amateur golf’s most prestigious titles. 

He also became the 18th squad member to record an individual victory abroad, adding his name to a list that includes graduates Kyle McClatchie, Jovan Rebula, Martin Vorster, Jayden Schaper, Potgieter and up-and-coming world-beaters Christiaan Maas and Tyran Snyders.

In the past four or five years, amateurs across the continent have been flocking to SA to enrol in the highly successful academies here, but financially many talented players did not have this option. The establishment of the R&A’s Africa High Performance Programme last year has been a fantastic development to ensure these talents are not lost to the game. 

Aimed to enhance and advance these players with camps, golf maintenance programmes to improve their functional strength, endurance training, 3D camera training, flight scope and much more — elements that have been out of reach for most of these talented players until now — the chances of these players realising their potential has increased hundredfold. 

You also have to give Rupert a nod for his role in amateur golf development. Not only did he sink R1m into the GolfRSA National Squad early on, but this year he donated an additional R15m to the programme to continue to empower young South Africans to reach greater heights.

We have already seen how the Sunshine Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Championship has blossomed into one of the most popular on the DP World Tour, and by hosting this prestigious amateur event at Leopard Creek, the continent’s biggest patron of the game is once again giving amateur golf a helping hand to promote the future of African golf. 

After almost 30 years in the industry, I continue to be amazed at what can be achieved when the industry holds hands. When golf clubs, coaches, academies, provincial unions and federations work together the sky is the limit. And now, with the R&A joining the Africa party, I have no doubt our amateurs across the continent are going to put up their hands.

The pathway to the Open for the winner here in Africa will generate huge interest and will serve as enormous encouragement for all Africa’s amateurs.