2023 FRIENDSHIP CUP CHAMPIONS

The Friendship Cup is played annually between Western Province and Boland. Teams of 6 players would be selected by each union based on caddies’ Order of Merit. The Western Province hosted this year’s tournament at King David Mowbray.

An idyllic day and recent rains set the stage for a friendly meet-up between the two unions. The day was split up into foursomes matches in the morning and singles matches in the afternoon.

After dominating the morning matches, Western Province racked up 3 points to take the early lead. Ivor Hartzenberg (Durbanville) and Mo Jacobs (King David Mowbray) defeated Carlton Koopman (Stellenbosch) and Harry Chase (De Zalze) 4 & 3. To remain in the cup race, Boland will need to put up a healthy fight back.

It was an action-packed afternoon session with some interesting matches. Boland’s first point came from Carlton Koopman against Ivor Hartzenberg. The matches of Shawn Baartman (Steenberg) and Marthinus Plaatjies (Stellenbosch) were halved, giving Boland another half point. However, the Western Province team rallied to win all of its matches in spectacular fashion. A 9-and-7 victory was achieved by Wilson Karingwe (Rondebosch) over Jermaine McCullum (De Zalze). Western Province Caddie League Order of Merit winner Daniel Joseph (Clovelly) beat Taswald Koopman (Stellenbosch) 2 up. The last blows were dealt to the Boland team by Mo Jacobs (KDM) and Paul Louw (Steenberg) who won their matches respectively by 5 &3 and 5 &4.

Western Province won the Friendship Cup with 7 1/2 points. Despite the defeat, the Boland team put up a worthy fightback and we are looking forward to their hosting the tournament at Paarl Golf Club next year.