BOOK EXTRACT

the

DOYEN

This is an extract from the book The Sunshine Boys, a Sunshine Tour publication produced in 2021

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The Sunshine Boys
by DAN RETIEF

One of the most astonishing achievements in world golf was recognised at Randpark Golf Club in Johannesburg in January 2020, during the staging of the 109th South African Open Championship.

It was announced that Denis Hutchinson was to be honoured by the creation of a new tournament and trophy in his name, appropriately endorsed by all the controlling bodies – the Sunshine Tour, PGA of South Africa, GolfRSA and the SA Golf Association.

Amazingly the man known as the 'Voice of South African golf', and the last amateur to win the championship, was attending his 70th consecutive SA Open as a player and a commentator; meaning that as he picked up his lip mike in the commentary booth he had been present at 64 percent of all South African national championships played since the first in 1903.

'Mr Hutch' or 'Hutchy' as he was affectionately known will be remembered by the Denis Hutchinson Challenge Trophy which will be played at his home course of Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club, featuring 10 Sunshine Tour professionals and 10 PGA of South Africa professionals competing as a team against a 20-strong GolfRSA amateur team in an annual challenge match.

A much-loved figure, Hutchinson did not turn professional until the age of 27, nine months after he won the SA Open in 1959 as an amateur on his birthday, 14 March, at Royal Johannesburg. Hailing from Umtali in eastern Rhodesia (now Mutare, Zimbabwe), he was the first of what in later years would become a procession of top players from that country who excelled on the Sunshine Tour.

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Although a late starter, he added the SA PGA, the French Open and the Dunlop Masters (three times) to his list of victories and served the professional game in every capacity possible – coach, chairman, president, captain, fund-raiser and tournament director. Invited to step into commentator's booth by Trevor Quirk when the SABC first started showing golf, he proved to be a natural given his deep love of golf and the gravelly timbre of a voice just made for TV. An unhappy episode caused him to be briefly taken off the commentating team but there was a silver lining when he was snapped up by Sky and European Tour TV to continue 'calling the golf'.

Hutchy was 87 when he was honoured at Randpark and, being the last amateur to win the SA Open, he was chuffed that a record 11 amateurs (in the European Tour era) had qualified and that an exciting young talent in Jayden Schaper took his first steps on the big stage.

The year 1959 was a halcyon one, for in July Gary Player won The Open at Muirfield and in November Hutchinson was part of a Springbok team, alongside Jannie le Roux, Jimmy Boyd, Reg Taylor, Bob Williams and Arthur Stewart, who won the Commonwealth Tournament at Royal Johannesburg. Hutchinson emerged with the best individual record having won all four of his singles matches and dropped only one-and-a-half points in the foursomes.

Hutchinson was a key player in promoting and raising sponsorship for pro tournaments before the Sunshine Tour became properly structured. He recalled its humble beginnings: 'We were struggling with our tournaments and battling to get the prizemoney up. I'll never forget the one year (1968) – Billy Casper came out and played a series of exhibitions with Gary.

They raised a hundred thousand rand for that – we were lucky if we played for three or four thousand rand in those days. I said boys we've got to do something. I'll never forget David Black (then president of the SA PGA) said, "Okay well off you go, see what you can do but don't cost the PGA any money."

'So I chatted to Brenda and George Blumberg, we all know what great benefactors they were of South African golf, and Brenda and I put together a list of potential sponsors and used to go into town (Johannesburg) and see businesspeople we thought might be able to help.

'From there came the first multi-sponsored tournament in Germiston and Lexington came in to sponsor the hole-in-one prize for the princely sum of five thousand rand. The next year we raised ten thousand rand, which happily I managed to win. Gary Player and Harold Henning before that had put up some money for the local guys to play for and then Brian Henning came and the Sunshine Tour grew into something very special – a great breeding ground for local talent plus a place to play for an array of young golfers who would go on to make a mark – Tony Jacklin, Peter Oosterhuis, Nick Faldo, Corey Pavin, Tom Lehman, David Feherty and quite a few others cut their competitive teeth out here. Tom Weiskopf was here, Hale Irwin was here, John Daly came, Bob Tway – you look at them and you realise how competitive our Tour has always been.'

Doyen is a word too lightly and too frequently applied, but when it came to Denis Hutchinson and South African professional golf it was indeed appropriate.

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