Different ball, same result: Boks remain unbeaten in TWH Legends Cup

South Africa’s sporting legends swapped the pitch for the fairway this week as rugby, cricket and football greats went head-to-head in a closely fought battle at the inaugural TWH Legends Cup in the Cape Winelands, with the Springboks ultimately edging out Bafana Bafana.

The two-day Clash of the Codes, brought to you by Compleat Golfer, brought together some of the country’s biggest sporting names at Pearl Valley Golf Estate, just 35 minutes from Cape Town and nestled in the picturesque Paarl-Franschhoek Valley.

With Springbok, Proteas and Bafana Bafana legends trading tackles, boundaries and goals for birdies and pars, the tournament offered a fitting showcase of South Africa’s sporting royalty – with the Mother City once again playing gracious host to greatness.

Compleat Golfer is a South African institution in its own right, launched in 1989 and relaunched by Highbury Media in 2016 to become the country’s longest-standing golf title.

It’s one of a stable of well-known names under Habari Media, the independent publishing group behind SA Rugby, the country’s top-selling rugby magazine and now the world’s number one digital rugby platform. Cape Town Etc sits under that same roof, having spent years chronicling the Mother City’s food, wine, culture and lifestyle scene.

Habari Media CEO Kevin Ferguson was full of praise for how the inaugural event came together. “A huge shout out to the Compleat Golfer team and headline sponsor TWH, who have had a strong association with other Habari properties like SA Rugby Magazine,” he said. “A big thank you to the respective team captains and their playing squads, who showcased their ability to be top golfers as much as they were soccer, rugby and cricket internationals.

“Pearl Valley was the perfect choice of course for our inaugural event. And the three squads were the perfect representation of legends in the South African sporting landscape.”

It came down to the wire. John Smit’s Springbok legends, backing him up with the likes of Fourie du Preez, Schalk Brits, Steven Kitshoff, Pat Lambie, Ryan Kankowski, Werner Greeff and Marius Joubert, finished the two-day Ryder Cup style contest deadlocked with Stanton Fredericks’ Bafana Bafana greats on 11½ points apiece.

Fredericks had Neil Tovey, Brian Baloyi, Mark Williams, Shaun Bartlett, Jimmy Tau, Fabian McCarthy and Bongani Khumalo alongside him, while Pat Symcox’s Proteas legends, featuring Barry Richards, Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Vernon Philander, Stephen Jeffries, Morne Morkel and Craig Matthews, finished a close third on 10.

When the scorecards were counted out, it was the Boks who came out on top, proving once again there’s no stopping them, even on the golf course.

The setting did plenty of the heavy lifting. Pearl Valley’s Jack Nicklaus-designed course sits within the Val de Vie Estate, ringed by the Simonsberg and Groot Drakenstein mountains and surrounded by some of the Cape’s finest wine farms—the kind of backdrop that turns a sporting contest into a proper winelands day out.

The closest anyone came to golfing immortality was Smit himself, whose tee shot at the par-3 13th settled just a few feet from the hole, agonisingly short of the R1.8 million watch, sponsored by Peter Machlup Jewellers, on offer for an ace.

Amateur golfers got in on the action too, with fourball access to play alongside the legends and more than a dozen activations dotted around the course, from nearest-the-pin challenges to a long-drive shootout on the ninth.

The event’s headline sponsor, TWH Bridging Finance, which provides short-term funding solutions to businesses and individuals, lent its name to the competition, while the Marquee Group, known for its event and hospitality activations, ran the Beat the Pro hole, giving amateurs the chance to test themselves against Sunshine Tour pros Jordan Burnard and Cole Stevens.

Three of South Africa’s most iconic sporting badges, one spectacular stretch of the Cape winelands, and a finish tight enough to need a count out. It’s hard to think of a better excuse for a day out in Paarl.