The Gus and Raymond Ackerman Champs were held at Durbanville, Cape Town, during the past weekend, consisting of two competitions, the Gus and Raymond Ackerman Championships, and the Jonathan Ackerman tournament.
The Gus and Raymond is an open event to all players over three rounds (18 on Saturday and 36 on Sunday), while the Jonathan Ackerman is an under-21 event (over 36 holes on Sunday).
Of course, while all eyes were on the three girls representing South Africa next week at the World Team Champs, there was a very strong field represented by players from all over the country, including Bertine Strauss, Stacey Bregman, Monique Smith, Sandra Winter, Gilly Tebbutt, and Tandi Van Ruben, to name a few.
While the talent was hot, the weather was not, with awful weather throughout the entire weekend.
Saturday saw Kelli Shean get off in the Gus and Raymond Ackerman to the worst possible start, shooting a 75 against Simon’s 65 and Bregman 69.
Shean really struggled, and in her round of 76, recorded 39 putts against her average of 29 to 31.
By the end of Saturday, Shean found her self way down the leaderboard with players like Simon, Bregman, Tebbutt, Smith and Straus way ahead of her.
She could have easily just showed up the following day and played through, but she didn’t.
Knowing that the under 21 Championships started in the morning, Shean went and shot the best round of the day for both rounds.
She had two great rounds of 70 and 70. Simon shot 73 and 70 and Bregman 70 and 73.
These two rounds shot Shean up the leader board into third place in the Gus and Raymond Ackerman competition, and also saw her walk away with the under 21 title, beating Simon into second place on one under, and Bregman into third on level. Shean finished on four under.
To me, this is what makes a great sportswoman, someone who has a terrible day at the office, but has the ability to come back the next day and show just what a great player is made off.