SA Rocks

Are. You. Kidding?

Steyn drop-kicks the ball 60m away from its destination. It clears the poles with possibly more than another 30m to spare. Easily a 90m drop-kick. WHAT?

Popularity: 13% [?]

YES PLEASE TIM!!

Mr Clark walked away with the Players Championship yesterday. What a boy. I can’t tell you how chuffed I am for him. There are a lot of shadows that can fall on South African golfers these days (The Goose and The Big Easy to name but two). And Tim Clark has finally stepped out of the shadows of his compatriots, although it’s not to say that he never made it as a pro, the man is brilliant at his game.

For a while now Clark has been marked as the best player to never have won on the PGA Tour. No longer Tim, no longer. Welcome to greatness as it were.

I am personally incredibly happy that Tim defeated most of the best golfers in the world to take this win. Phil Mickelson was nowhere and Tiger Woods pulled out with a neck injury or something to that effect.

Clark deserves this victory after apparently going 204 tournaments without a win.

For a much more detailed article on the events head over here.

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The Big Easy is back.

He is most definitely my pick for the upcoming Masters tournament. Ernie has taken two wins this year and seems to be back on form. He is traveling less this year and practicing more. It’s about time the Big Easy took a bit of a slowdown and realised his true potential.

I watched much of his final round and he played out of his boots finally. He looks like he has his swing back and is playing with a quiet confidence that I haven’t seen in him in years. Welcome back Ernie.

Here’s Ernie’s shot of the day and short chat before his final round:

Popularity: 10% [?]

Oosthuizen took control of the Open de Andalucia de Golf in Malaga on Sunday and came away with a win.

A bit more info from southafrica.info:

Leaderboard

He posted rounds of 67, 63, 66, and 67 on the par-70 course for a 17-under-par total of 263.

Richard Finch of England and Scotsman Peter Whiteford shared second on 266 after closing with rounds of 67 and 66 respectively. Coles and Francesco Molinari tied for fourth on 268, followed by six players tied for sixth on 269.

Thomas Aiken, the only other South African to make the cut, shared 36th place on three-under-par 277.

Tribute to Els

After his victory, Oosthuizen paid tribute to his mentor, Ernie Els, saying: “I would not be the golfer I am today without all the help I have received from Ernie.”

Oosthuizen became a member of the Ernie Els and Fancourt Foundation in the year of its inception, 1999. The Foundation’s mission is “To identify talented young South Africans from families of limited resources and provide them with educational assistance and playing opportunities in order to produce successful young leaders and golfers.”

With his win, Oosthuizen became the first Foundation member to win on the European Tour, making Els a happy man.

source – southafrica.info

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This is absolutely incredible. So much for those baseball players needed massive gloves to catch flyers.

Hat tip to @CraigRodney for the link.

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This is possibly one of the most entertaining videos that I’ve seen in ages from South Africa.

The video depicts a Springbok fan going through the touring bus of Bokke trophies acquired and held by the Boks right now.

Fantastic. Truly.

Thanks to Pienaar for sending this one on!

Popularity: 8% [?]

Els claims his first victory in two years and this after finishing a tied 67th place at the Honda Classic last week.

This shows the class of the man and the handle he has on his practical game and mental abilities.

From SuperSport:

“I found something just before dark and I couldn’t wait to get out here and try it. I kept working on it and basically by Thursday I started getting a bit of an idea,” he said.

He put the idea into practice and on Sunday the 40-year-old South African claimed his first tour win in two years in the WGC-CA Championship at Doral.

Els’s last victory, at the Honda two years ago, ended a four year barren spell for him at US tour events but while he talked up his chances then, this time he is striking a considered tone.

“I said a bit too much last time I won,” Els said after he beat compatriot Charl Schwartzel by four strokes on Sunday.

“I was a bit too cocky. I want to just enjoy this one. This took so much work to win.

“A lot of people have said that the older you get, the tougher it becomes to win and that’s very true.

“I’m 40 years old and it feels like in my twenties I had so many chances and I didn’t quite take them,” he said.

Source – Supersport

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Great to see Charl Schwartzel coming together to win the almost R11m first prize.

Also – congratulations to a friend of mine, Thomas Aiken for placing second to start the year off as well as he ended 2009. Another South African placed 3rd: Jbe’ Kruger. That makes it an SA 1st/2nd/3rd finish. Lovely.

Here’s the list of placings:

LEADERBOARD

272 – Charl Schwartzel 67 70 68 67

273 – Thomas Aiken 67 67 69 70

274 – Jbe’ Kruger 69 68 67 70

275 – Rick Kulacz (AUS) 72 69 67 67

275 – James Morrison (ENG) 68 70 69 68

275 – Chris Swanepoel 71 68 68 68

275 – Trevor Fisher Jnr 66 66 71 72

276 – Branden Grace 70 70 70 66

276 – James Kingston 68 69 71 68

276 – Michiel Bothma 69 69 70 68

276 – Pelle Edberg (SWE) 69 68 70 69

276 – Miles Tunnicliff (ENG) 68 71 67 70

source

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I was fortunate enough to receive photos of the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban over email.

I managed to find a source for the photographs. Credit goes to Lefty Shivambu for the all of the photos.

Have a look for yourself.

Forget Greenpoint, Port Elizabeth or any other stadium, this one simply blows my mind.

images: Karen Lotter

Popularity: 18% [?]

RUGBY

CRICKET

What a fantastic achievement. South Africa is currently the number one country in Test Cricket Ranking and the Rugby Union Rankings. What a sight! What an achievement and what a time to do it.

Coupled with Caster Semenya’s victory and the 2010 World Cup coming to SA, the Gautrain and tourism pumping, South Africa is looking good right now I’d say!

As of Monday 24 August, South Africa is top of the world Test cricket rankings (by virtue of England beating Australia). Not only that, we’re also top of the world One-Day International cricket ranking as well as being the number one ranked Rugby Union country in the world. So we are top of both the cricket and rugby rankings at the same time!

I cannot remember when any country last managed this feat. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that it MAY have been Australia in 1999, because they won the Rugby World Cup that year and have been top of the cricket rankings for about the last 15 years or so. England topped the rugby rankings briefly in 2003 but they’ve not been number one at cricket for many years now. New Zealand have regularly been rugby’s number one, but never in history have they enjoyed this status at cricket. Even Australia’s feat in 1999 may not match what we’ve done, because winning the Rugby World Cup does not automatically make you the number one team (although it obviously helps a lot).

All we need now is for Soccer to follow suit …

Thanks to Paul for his nudge, reminder and research! Good work.

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