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MIND / JOURNEYS
‘I was proud of Aldrich at Sun City’ Caddying in the Nedbank Challenge came naturally to me after 20 years of playing tournament golf as a pro. By Jake Roos, with Stuart McLean I PLAYED MY VERY LAST EVENT ON THE SUNSHINE TOUR in the Vodacom Origins Final at Oubaai in November. I then had to resign my membership of the tour to caddie for Aldrich Potgieter in the Nedbank Challenge just two weeks later. You cannot play on the tour and moonlight as a caddie for other players. Aldrich and I are both members at Pinnacle Point in Mossel Bay, so know each other well from playing golf there together. He had asked me previously to caddie for him at Q School in America, which I had to turn down, and then approached me again late last year about being his bagman at Sun City. His American caddie couldn’t make the trip due to other priorities.
that winning the trophy would be momentous for his career. He was in control on Sunday until thinning that bunker shot at 12 over the green and making a triple-bogey six. Any tee shot ending in that bunker is badly out of position, and he had 25 to 30 metres to the pin, a tough distance to judge. In hindsight he could have played conser- vatively for a bogey, but I was hesitant to suggest that and sound negative. He was pumped up and confident. ● ● ● Aldrich was a bit rattled by that, see- ing a comfortable lead evaporate in one hole, but fought back with birdie at 14 to retake the lead. The last four holes are such a tough finishing stretch, yet his only real error was a weak tee shot at 16, another par 3 where he was bunkered. The first three days he had been two-under for the par 3s but played them four-over on Sunday. At 18 his tee shot was in the right rough, and we knew it would be difficult to hold the green from 200 metres out. He played that shot perfectly with a 9-iron and the ball still went over the green! They had become so firm on Sunday. ● ● ● I did have some experience of cad- dying before the tournament – for fellow SA pros in America when
It was a heartbreaking moment when Aldrich missed that par putt on the final green and realised his dream of winning the NGC was over. He didn’t show it, but I knew he was hurting, and the next week at Leopard Creek in the Alfred Dunhill Championship you could see he was deflated. Yet we began the week at Sun City with no expectations, and achieving what he did as such a young rookie on tour was exceptional. ● ● ● What surprised me was that Aldrich had had little previous exposure to Sun City. At the beginning of the week, we decided on dinner at a restaurant in the Entertainment Centre. “Where’s that?” he asked, which made me laugh at first, until I realised he was being serious. He had only been there once before as a junior. The way the Gary Player Country Club played that week, dry and firm, did not favour his long game, yet he showed what a calm tem- perament he has by coping all weekend long with the lead. I was proud of him. He hit great shots under the gun. ● ● ● The Nedbank Challenge no longer gets the strong fields it had in its heyday, but remains a big event for South Africans, and Aldrich knew
playing Monday qualifiers on the Korn Ferry Tour. The agreement was that if one of us got into a tournament, another would caddie for him. I cad- died for Tyrone van Aswegen and Chris Swanepoel. As a player on tour, I did my own yardages as that was my style, so I felt comfortable doing that job for Aldrich. However, the heavy weight of his bag – four water bottles included – was a shock in the practice rounds. But once the tournament began, I was pumped up with adrenalin. I wasn’t as fit as I could have been though, as for the past four years much of the social golf I’ve played has been in a cart at Pinnacle Point. ● ● ● I had been told before the tourna- ment that Sun City is a “graveyard” for caddies because of the way the wind constantly switches direction. This results in mis-clubbing, and you can be as much as two or three clubs out if you get it wrong. You don’t see that much wind watching the tournament on TV, but it is a big factor. It was blus- tery on Sunday and those conditions, plus the general firmness of the course, was why the winning score (5-under 283) was the highest since David Frost shot 4-under in 1990. ● ● ●
14 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2025
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