Phil Jonas: A South African Blog - Memories

A former PGA TOUR member and a three-time PGA of B.C. Player of the Year (2003-04-07), Jonas may have recently discovered a new avenue in golf for which he is most suited, that of a personal tour host for discriminating golfers seeking the ultimate in traveling holidays.

BC Golf News is honoured to share this Phil Jonas blog following his return from a recent visit to his homeland in South Africa.

Phil Jonas Blog
Last year when I visited my Father in South Africa I didn't have many games of golf as most of my friends work, so I decided it would be great to bring some Canadian friends to play golf and show them South AFRICA. I mentioned my plan to Mike Stuart, President of the West Coast Golf Group (Hazelmere, Swan-e-Set Resort, Belmont) and he said he was in. The trip was born and we decided on a max of seven guys. (We even had to turn some away in the end)

One of the things I wanted my friends to experience was the private golf culture of South Africa, so I felt we would only play courses that had been around awhile. Although they have many good new courses in South Africa, I felt we could play those types of courses in North America.

The trip got off to a rocky start with bad weather in London and our flights getting cancelled. We finally arrived in Johannesburg a day late. We had to change our initial plans of going to a golf course/game reserve and just stayed in Johannesburg. We played Glendower Golf Club, which has held a few tour events including the S.A. Open. Canadian star Graham DeLaet of Saskatchewan, now playing on the U.S. PGA TOUR, won a tournament at Glendower les than a year ago. The course played long due to a lot of recent rain.

The next day we flew to Cape Town which is a beautiful city like Vancouver. Table Mountain overlooks the city and has a flat top hence the name, and when we arrived the clouds covered it like a table cloth which means it is very windy. They say Cape Town is the 2nd windiest city in the World. (You ask what is the windiest; it got blown away). We stayed in a great 5 star guest house in Camps Bay overlooking the sea. We stayed in Guest Houses as they were cheaper and better than Hotels and extremely luxurious. Usually we were the only people staying there. All of these guest houses have their own pool, all rooms were comfortable and all had an honour bar which got punished.

The next morning we played Stellenbosch Golf Club, it has also held the S.A. Open and the World Amateur. Arnold Mentz, the host Pro and former Commissioner of the Sunshine Tour, treated us well. Stellenbosch is famous for all its wineries. So, naturally, after golf we went for lunch and a wine tour to the Hartsenberg Estate. Not being much of drinker this was a little wasted on me, but my friends more than made up for my inexperience. I'm not going to mention food much, but I will say we never had a bad meal during our trip and it was relatively inexpensive.

Next was probably the highlight for everyone. Two days at a Private Game Reserve . . . Gondwana Game Reserve, www.gondwanagr.co.za. Until now I had never been to a private game reserve, I had been to the Kruger National Park which is great, but this is very high end. The unique thing about Gondwana is that it is in the Cape near Fancourt (Presidents Cup with Ernie and Tiger) which is Malaria free. Most Game Reserves are in areas where that isn't the case. Gondwana has the BIG FIVE, Lions, Leopards, Elephants, Buffalo, and Rhinos plus many more wild animals. The fence around the reserve is 85km so it isn't small nor is it too big. The Kruger Park is probably bigger than Vancouver Island.

Koubus, our guide for the 2 days, met us at the gate. The vehicle that he drove was a modified Hummer that is open air and has 4 rows of seats with each row getting progressively higher. He took us to the lodge for lunch. All our meals and drinks were included which was at a very high standard. Our accommodations were better than anything I have stayed in; we basically had 2 houses that were about 40 yards apart. We were given firm instructions not to walk between the two houses as there are no fences keeping the animals out, although our neighbours, when they ran out of drinks, felt the risk was worth taking by coming to raid our bar.

Around 3.30pm Koubus took us on our game drive. His knowledge of every animal, bird and plant was great. The vehicle goes were he wants it to go and although there are some dirt rounds we usually made our own roads. We saw numerous animals and basically just enjoyed where we were. At about 6.30 pm Koubus stopped to check the area for any thing that could eat us. He pulled out two coolers, one with wine and beer, the other with chicken drumsticks and cherries rapped with bacon for a sun downer. After that we drove around till dinner time at 8.30 at the lodge. We still hadn't seen any lions; they are not easy to spot. After dinner at 10.30 pm driving back to our house using a flashlight we spotted four lions and followed them for about 30 minutes, staying about 30 yards away from them. One of the beauties about having a guide like Koubus is he can usually tell what kind of mood the animals are in. If they were in the wrong mood we wouldn't want be this close.

Next morning at 5.30 am it was time for our next game ride until breakfast at 9 am. It is best to view the animals early in the morning and again late in the afternoon. At about 7 am we stopped for coffee and rusks. I think I put on about 10 lbs. Our hosts were feeding us on the way to being fed and we were not complaining.

That afternoon we had an exciting game drive and spotted a Black Rhino, which has a temper that is a lot worse than a White Rhino. We had our Sun downer watching and observing this Black Rhino. Koubus decided we should get a little closer so we got about 30 yards from him. All of a sudden the Rhino charged our vehicle and all 8 of us started screaming as Koubus drove away to safety. If you ever go to South Africa this is a place you have to go to. There is a lot of great golf course close to Gondwana so you can do it all.

The next day we flew to Durban and the South Coast, which is on the Indian Ocean. About 80 minutes south of Durban is one of my favourite golf courses called Southbroom. It is on the ocean side and is only about 6,000 yards long but what a great course. We played with the host pro Derek James, a former winner on the Canadian Tour. We played in a Saturday competition where it was the best 2 scores to count of the four. Anyway, Derek was 5-under after 9 holes and I played the last 14 holes in 8-under. So embarrassingly with the help of Mike Stuart and Roger Kocheff we won the competition, but Derek seemed quite happy to take down his members. On Sunday we played the Wild Coast course which is a further 20 minutes south. This is a Robert Trent Jones course overlooking the ocean. It was great to see the host pro Fred Beaver, who won the S.A. junior in 1973 by taking down Nick Price and Dennis Watson. There was great crop of Rhodesian juniors than. (That's Zimbabwe now).

We drove up to Durban and played Beachwood which is part of Durban Country Club. Beachwood is a very tight course on the ocean, it was extremely windy that day. We don't really know what wind is in Vancouver; I lost three balls while shooting a 75. I think our group must have lost close to 100 balls and I don't think they enjoyed the course that much because of the wind, although it usually is a very good golf course.

Durban Country Club, my favourite in South Africa, is ranked in the top 100 around the world and the venue for the next five South African Opens. It is always a pleasure to play the course, the first five holes can be very hard, but not unfair. The 18th is one of the great finishing holes in golf, a 265-yard, par-4. When playing in South Africa you always stop after 9 holes for a little breakfast or lunch, Durban Country Club has a great half way house. Because of the Indian influence in Durban a steak pie with curry gravy is what I miss in Canada, and I think everyone on the trip will be missing a pie with curry gravy after 9 holes.

One of the beauties of this trip was the flexibility because the next day five guys wanted to go deep sea fishing and 3 of us played golf. They went out for five hours on the Indian Ocean catching some fish called Dorado. They had hoped to catch some shark but they still had a great time. We ate the Dorado that night when my cousin hosted us for traditional South African Braai (You call it a bar-b-que) He had all sorts of meat including Boerewors, which is a sausage that most South Africans can't live without. There wasn't a vegetable on the property.

After a few more days we played the course where I grew up and my Father was the Manager for 25 years. Kyalami Country Club, which is between Johannesburg and the Capital of South Africa, Pretoria. Kyalami was a great place to grow up; the course has matured so well and in my opinion it has be in the top 10 in South Africa, although it is not rated that highly. I played my best golf of the trip there as my friend Tom Spragge kept reminding that I shot 68 there when I was 13 while playing with Gary Player in a Father and Son tournament. Tom kept telling everyone how much worse I was now, so I had managed to beat 68 by a few shots to keep him quite, which is impossible.

The last round before the boys went home was at Royal Johannesburg, another great private resort that has two courses. I'm sure everybody had a great time, I definitely did. I stayed a further 2 weeks to spend some time with my 92-old-father and I took the opportunity to visit some of my old friends who are now golf coaches and to share some ideas. We can always learn something and I did.

I'm looking forward to getting back to teaching after my month holiday and maybe I'll do another trip like this to South Africa soon.

PHIL JONAS
CPGA Class A Professional
McCleery Golf Academy
Philip Jonas Golf Academy at Hazelmere
(604) 787 0145