WORDS BY HUGO CORNELL

The 3rd edition of the Africa Amateur Championship has just wrapped up at the historic parkland layout of Royal Johannesburg. A total of 72 male amateurs and 21 female amateurs contested for their respective titles coming from all corners of the continent, from Zimbabwe to Tunisia.

Outside of the silverware, prestige and clout up for grabs the winner of the men’s title would receive an invite into this year’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, along with invites into the South African Open, The Amateur Championship at Hoylake and other pro events. For the ladies, pro events also awaited, including an automatic spot into final qualifying for the 50th AIG Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes, an invite to The Women’s Amateur Championship at Muirfield.

The tournament was contested on the East Course at ‘Royal Jo’, tipping out at just over 7000 yards with a par of 72 (unless you believe ‘par’ is a flat circle then ignore that last part). The course was originally laid out by Robert Grimsdell, with renowned golf course architect C.H. Alison making various reported recommendations and revisions. King George V found time in between his chronic stamp collecting and shooting hobbies to grant the Club ‘Royal’ status in 1931. Royal Johannesburg has since accrued a great pedigree as tournament host, having held many a South African Open and Alfred Dunhill Championship over the years.

The winner of the Men’s title this year was South Africa’s Jack Buchanan, he shot rounds of 68, 65, 67 & 67 to claim the title at 21 under par. Jack spent most of the tournament wearing a black high crown visor which had ‘Bombs, Darts, Birds’ embroidered on the front. Certainly, a mantra to live by on the golf course, but not something you would read in the ‘Tibetan Book of The Dead’. When you couple that visor with his aggressive moustache you really have one of the punchier and swaggy looks in the amateur game. At times Jack was happy to use and help himself to every inch of kikuya grass on the property, making birdies from other fairways through tree canopies as well as the more traditional modern way of ’the flick wedge’.

For the 21-year-old Jack Buchanan the invite to the 154th Open at Royal Birkdale is extra special. He returns to the site of what was his first Open viewing experience in 2017, this time as a champion. He reminisced in his post-tourney press conference how Kevin Na had given him a signed golf ball and Rickie Fowler bestowed him a signed Titleist Players leather glove. Jack now will be on the other side of the ropes, signing gloves and balls for who knows who, but they could turn out to be a future amateur champion like him.

The Africa Amateur Women’s Invitational was won by 15-year-old Lisa Coetzer from South Africa. Lisa shot three consecutive rounds of level-par (72) to win by two shots. She credited her mental strength as being her secret weapon to winning this week, which is an impressive thing to accredit at such a young age. She double bogeyed the par 3 2nd hole at the start of her final round but was unshaken and parred 6 in a row and birdied the 9th to close out her front 9. She trailed her fellow compatriot in Lourenda Steyn as she headed to the final stretch of holes. Lisa finished with back-to-back birdies to turn that around and win the title. Surely Dr Bob Rotella needs to interview her on her superb mental game so he can retire his old material on Davis Love III and Brad Faxon.

The black bucket hat toting JL Dewan De Bruin (SA) also provided another fantastic storyline to the Championship by toppling the long-standing course record with a supernova like final round of 60. This 12 under par round shot him up 13 spots on the leaderboard from the start of the round to his eventual 2nd place finish by close. JL’s final 10 holes featured eight 3’s and a 2, punching in that 60 with an eagle on his last hole. I should mention he’s just 17, I think I was muddling through a driving theory exam at that age. JL Dewan De Bruin is absolutely one to follow in the coming years off the back of this ‘balling out’ 60. The previous record on the championship East Course was a 63, which was posted by Gary Player in the 1977 SA Open, it had only ever been matched as a score up until JL came along, by Darren Fichardt (2008), Charl Schwartzel (2009) and Thomas Aiken (2014).

Putting scoring records aside, I think one of the great and quiet stories of this championship is the participation of 16-year-old Hassan Gibathe from Sierra Leonne. Yes, he registered two separate tons in a stroke play event, that isn’t winning anything (we’ve also seen a few dodgy single figure handicappers at our clubs no doubt hit that too), but it is a quiet victory and a building block for a sport that for decades was lost within his homeland’s strife. At its peak Sierra Leone had 6 golf courses located around the land. After the civil war only Freetown Golf Club remained, a clubhouse riddled with bullet holes after a looting, a 4th hole with mines embedded, and a police checkpoint set-up to the side of the 8th fairway to guard a nearby road. For a nation and golf club to rise from those ashes and a young man to take to the world golf stage with that flag is truly remarkable.

It would be important to note that since the founding of the tournament only back in 2024 participation numbers have skyrocketed. 7.5 million juniors are engaging with golf across all formats in Africa. Over 300,000 people are registered as golfers through their national associations. There is no surprise in these main markets currently being in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco and Zimbabwe. The R&A has recently rolled out a ‘Community Golf Instructor Award’ program to Tanzania and Rwanda to create access to golf for juniors, women and underserved communities, helping to create more inclusive and welcoming entry points into the sport. They launched this off the back of their ‘High-Performance Support’ initiative that provides funding to African high-performance players for travel, accommodation, and tournament entry fees to build experience in World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) events. This all is an admirable, noble and important use of funds.

What the governing bodies of the Africa Amateur Championship’s sister events have done so well, along with the R&A, is move the respective tournaments about to different countries, markets and cultures. Though obviously the Africa Am is the youngest of the three, having now only ever been contested in South Africa (spending the first two years at Leopard Creek) it would only be right in moving it to a new host country for 2027. The obvious choice would be heading north to Morocco. It has a litany of championship venues, which have hosted LET Q School’s and Senior Tour events, such as Al Maaden and Royal Golf Marrakech. It would also be quite possible for Karen Country Club, which stages the Magical Kenya Open to be used as a venue in the future. There is also great scope to utilise the growing Egyptian market with the Greg Norman design Allegra or the Faldo designed and self-described ‘golfing oasis’ Katameya Dunes as possible championship sites.

Since the founding the Asia Pacific Amateur, Latin American Amateur and African Amateur, golf has only gone from strength to strength, and the financial capitalisation that has gone on in golf in our post-COVID world is being translated into dreams being realised by individuals from less likely corners of the globe. They are getting tangible opportunities and pathways now to follow their passions in various areas of golf. Yes, America remains the big ‘FIG’, but the game knows no colours or borders, it is for everyone.