Nick Wessels, overall Trophy Division winner of Randpark’s 2025 Weekday Club Championship, plays an awful lot of golf – like five days a week every single week, Monday to Friday, which means he makes the absolute maximum use of his weekday membership.
“And when I’m not actually playing golf, I spend my time thinking about golf,” the amiable, popular 71-year-old retired schoolteacher confesses. He likes to tinker with his swing, so he often goes onto YouTube to watch instructional videos and tries to find the secret to this great game. “But sometimes watching these videos backfires on you and you get confused and you end up playing worse,” he exclaims with a laugh.
In the Club Championships, Nick had a superb nett 67 on Bushwillow on day one, and then, on the Friday on Firethorn, posted a 76 nett in the mid-afternoon unseasonal rain for a winning aggregate of 143. “In the first round I played really well. I drove well, I sank some long putts and I didn’t miss any of the short ones. Then, in round two I started missing putts. I lost my stroke and it got into my head. I mean, golf does this to you. I’m just glad I managed to hold on for the win.”
Nick “blames” close friend Jurie van der Nest, who today runs Randpark’s over-50s Tuesday and Thursday mornings TATs group, as the “culprit” who got him into golf. “This was in the early 1980s and Jurie pretty much insisted – it was like he didn’t give me an option – that I join him and his brother on Saturdays for golf and, from then on, every Saturday, we’d play 36 holes here at Randpark – a round on each of the courses. We’d book for 7 o’clock and then again for 11 o’clock and we loved those full days of golf.”
Later on, Nick needed to take a 10-year break from the game before returning to golf after his retirement. “I didn’t realise being on pension could be this good – playing golf every day, and being crazy about the game at the same time!”
Nick was born in the Free State, but when he was nine months old, his parents moved to Linden, and he has lived very happily in the suburb ever since. “Linden is my home, as is Randpark, and I love it. Even when my wife Tia takes the grandkids on holiday, I’m happy to stay at home!”
He taught at Linden Hoerskool for no less than 38 years, imparting his knowledge of woodwork and engineering and graphic design to the boys. He’s teetotal, so you generally won’t find him sitting around after the game having a few drinks. “Yes, it’s great to socialise, but I find socialising on the course does it perfectly for me.” As does being on the links at Randpark every Monday to Friday. That really does it for him!
Sweet swinging Les Rule, meanwhile, won the Ladies Trophy with a nett score of 147 for the 36 holes – 74 on Bushwillow and 73 on Firethorn. She describes herself as very focused and very competitive, but apart from just trying to make birdies and pars for her own satisfaction, Les – as many Randpark members will know – has been deeply involved in golf for 30 years as a stalwart administrator both at provincial and national level. She served on the executive committee of Ladies Golf Gauteng (later Central Golf Gauteng) for 19 long years from 2005 to 2024 and was President from 2009 to 2012. What’s more, she qualified as a Rules Official with the Royal and Ancient and these days officiates at Sunshine Ladies Tour and DP World Tour events.
When a friend first met Les, she thought ‘Rule’ was her nickname. Turns out it’s her genuine and very apt surname. No doubt about it, Les plays by the Rule! Les took up golf when her husband moved to Zimbabwe for a six-year spell when she was 30 and she learnt all about the rules and etiquette of the game from the expats while there, and that was the start of her journey. A past Captain at Wanderers before she moved to Randpark, Les says playing golf is her social time with her friends, but she remains very competitive, and she also plays Sunday league for the club. She won the B Division strokeplay of the Club Championships in 2018 when, as she explains, “I was in the shower when they called me back onto the course because I was in a playoff” (in which she beat Lindiwe Grootboom). She is also a past Ladies Individual Knockout champion, so now, with the Weekday title in the bag, courtesy of her steady and controlled play, she has come full circle.
Another 71-year-old, Mr Consistency Graeme Farr, won the Medal Division for handicaps 10.6 and below with a pair of 83 gross returns which, off his 9-hancicap, gave him netts of 74 and 74 for a 148 total. “Steady – that’s my game,” he says. “I don’t leave the fairway. I hit the ball straight down the middle. The courses for the club champs, incidentally, were in immaculate condition and conducive to low scores. I played okay except for a double-bogey seven at Bushwillow’s par-5 17th. Good drive, good second leaving me just a sand wedge in. But I hit it in the teeth into the water and made a double. I can tell you, the air was blue!”
Graeme, born in the UK before coming out to SA in 1975, is a retired chemical engineer with a long history in golf. He has been a single figure handicap for many years and it’s not uncommon for him to break 80. For the last 10 years or so he has run the Tuesday and Thursday afternoon Shakers which, like the TATs, is for the so-called older folk although many of the participants are still very competitive. He often enjoys a round with our club’s GM, Robby Richardson.
A stickler for etiquette, he is disappointed in what he sees as a growing trend among the golfers of today, especially the younger ones, of not raking bunkers and not replacing divots. “It’s your course so you need to look after it,” he insists. Still, he loves his golf as does his wife Irene, who is a full member of the club. “We enter Mixed Opens but not as partners,” he cautions. “If we did that, it might end in divorce!” he adds with a chuckle.
Reggie Skhosana won the Stableford Division for handicaps 10.7 and above with nett returns of 31 and a handy 38 for a 69 total. He plays golf once or twice a week with his wife Busi, who he reckons is a better player than he is and, proof of this, in 2022 she won the Women’s title in the Weekday Champs. Reggie owns the Blackheath food outlet McDonald’s, and he says getting out on the golf course is a stress reliever from the business of work for both him and Busi. Highlights for him in the Club Champs were a couple of birdies on Firethorn, which enabled him to move quickly up the leaderboard. Fast golf, fast food … clearly that’s Reggie Skhosana for you!
Elca Faure with 150 nett finished second to Wessels in the Trophy Division, Peter Nandi on 149 was runner-up behind Farr in the Medal Division, and Rene Roodt was counted out by Skhosana in the Stableford.
Written by Randpark member Grant Winter.
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