Karroo / Beaufort West
| 1954-05 |
The Great Karroo Open Championship in 1954 was played on the Beaufort West Coloured Golf Course over 36 holes. It was won by J Petersen (78 74 - 152), member of the Midlands Club in Cape Town, with local champion P J Duimpies (72 81 - 153) in second place. The Club was assisted with the running of the tournament by Peter Louw, Cape Town based, who was responsible for so much of the spread of golf amongst non-Whites in the Cape Province and beyond. Visitors from the Cape were mainly made up of members of the Thornhill Club. In the newspaper report on the event Louw is quoted as saying: “The organisation of the Tournament was excellent and beyond expectations. I can safely say that the Beaufort West Golf Course is the only non-European golf course in Africa.” This is perhaps not exactly true when taking the courses in and around Johannesburg into consideration. A highlight of the meeting was the “Braaivleis Aand” organised by the Club with the help of the women-folk. |
| 1955 | The Great Karroo Open in 1955 was played over the Easter weekend with entries from Western Province and the Transvaal but no scores are on record. |
| 1956-02 | A letter from M Duimpies, Assistant Secretary of the Beaufort West Coloured Club, was received by RG Fall, editor of SA Golf. The letter was in connection with certain rules interpretations. Duimpies, now Secretary, wrote again in December 1957 on a similar theme and then another letter to the Editor was dated January 1958 by which time the Assistant Secretary was M Davids. |
| 1958-03 |
There was talk of an inter-provincial Non-European tournament being arranged to take place at Beaufort West and the possibility of finding a sponsor sympathetic to the non-European golf movement was mooted. “A trophy is wanted. Nothing expensive; a shield will do very nicely.” |
| 1958-05 | The Great Karroo Championship in 1958, again played at Beaufort West, was won by J Baxter from Worcester. The runner-up was P J Kleintjies |