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Randpark Blog

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Jurie and Marlene mix it up well again

by | Nov 9, 2022

RANDPARK’S Jurie and Marlene van der Nest have been happily married for a long time, and part of their vows – the better and for worse bit – has, over the years, applied to them as golfing partners.

The pair of them have teamed up, according to Jurie, “about 30 times” in the club’s annual Mixed Knockout over the decades. And, when it comes to birdies and bogeys, it’s definitely been more better than worse for them. They’ve reached the final on no less than seven occasions and just this past week they won the competition for the fourth time.

Playing the club’s Vice-Captain, Thiruven Naidoo and his partner Catherine Hammond in the final on Firethorn, Marlene and Jurie – starting at the 10th – were off to a hot start by winning holes 10, 11 and 12 to go three up. “They then won the 13th but we took 14, 15 and 17,” said Jurie, “That put us 5-up and we went on to win 6 and 5 and, overall, it was Marlene who played really well.”

The Van der Nests were given a first-round bye this year but had to get through three tough rounds after that before reaching the final. So, again, considerably more better than worse!

Jurie, incidentally, runs the over-50s TATS seniors group which play competitions among themselves every Tuesday and Thursday morning every single week of the year. It’s like a club within the main club with about 70 members (some ladies too, Marlene among them). It’s all very friendly but, at the same time, pretty competitive too. Some of these so-called old-timers are anything but over the hill.

With his accounting background, Jurie is a stats man and he meticulously keeps records, on a month-to-month basis, of just how every single TATS member is progressing. The leaderboard after every competition does not only include, for example, the top three but every player. If you miss out on the money, it’s like you miss the cut just like if you’re on tour. The competition fee is R10 with the top finishers sharing a percentage of the pool. So there’s a prize-money Order of Merit, and, for example, two clubs are noted and accumulated towards a year-end two-club champion. For better and for worse golfing-wise, it’s all great fun.

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