Simple For Simon In Sun City

What a win for Simon Wakefield as another of our young guns came out firing in South Africa.
The triumph in the Dimension Data Pro-Am at Sun City will have done the Englishman a power of good… not least in terms of self confidence which, he admits, has never been one of his strong points.
Simon was forced back to Q School last year and excelled, proving to himself at the same time that he was capable of making a breakthrough in elite company.
Golfers do not come much more elite than former Open and US PGA winner Nick Price, who was one of several champions left in Wakefield’s slipstream.   Watch Simon this year in Europe too because I think his days of struggling are now behind him.
We had other top 10 finishes in Louis Oosthuizen, another winner in waiting, and Ben Mason while teenager Anton Haig is continually improving while our latest young South African, Matthew Kent, showed why he is such a special talent by making the cut on his professional debut.
Lee Westwood could be satisfied with his top 10 in the Singapore Masters as his season’s opener despite not making a putt all week while James Kingston continued his bright start to the season.
Our cricketers also excelled in South Africa where captain Michael Vaughan and referee Clive Lloyd seem to have their wires crossed for whatever reason.
Michael is arguably the most professional sportsman I have ever met so I was astounded when the former West Indian captain described him as rude and dismissive.  It’s surely a case of mistaken identity.
We all wish our ISM colleague Andrew Coltart a speedy recovery after being rushed into hospital for an appendix operation in Singapore.   I told him I thought it was going a bit far just to prove that our BUPA and travel insurance policies work while we’re abroad.