The Vodacom ProAm Challenge

Last year I was selected to take part in the annual Vodacom ProAm Challenge, where amateur golfers from around the country get chosen to play against professionals in a tournament which signals the start of the Sunshine Tour.

There are 6 amateurs chosen from a field of over 6000 entrants, so you can imagine my surprise when I got the call. The pic above shows myself and Chanelle who was another of the entrants chosen.
I'm the one on the left, in case you were wondering.

In order for us amateurs to be given a taste of exactly the kind of pressure seasoned professionals are put under each time they play in these tournaments, we were treated exactly as the Pro's would get treated.
From the reserved VIP Parking bays as we entered to the sponsored gear awaiting us upon arrival and everything else in between that finally led to the awards ceremony with the Blue Bulls rugby team as guests of honour.

The final scores were tallied, and for those of you unfamiliar with reading a golfing scoreboard, let's just say it was a pretty close game.
For those of you who are familiar with golfing scoreboards, I suggest you move right along. There's nothing to see here.

In order for us to be playing on a somewhat even keel against the Pro's, we were each assigned a pro caddy. Not that it made much difference to my game on the day.

The pic above was taken during the Supersport interview which was aired on The Golf Bag two weeks later.

This was the Pro I played against, Jean Hugo.
An absolute gentleman and master of the game. He's already won the Sunshine Tour previously. I learned more from him in one afternoon than I did in an entire 3 month course of Golf lessons.

So this was certainly one item I would be knocking off my Bucket List!
To play in a tournament against seasoned professionals, now there's something an amateur golfer doesn't do every day :)