Carl Ikeme was born in England’s Second City and retains it as his home while striving to reach the Premier League with Wolverhampton Wanderers. But he has a flourishing other life, in Africa.
The 29-year-old Brummie – the term for an inhabitant of industrial Birmingham – is the new safe pair of hands for Nigeria’s Super Eagles, setting out on the difficult mission to fill the gloves of Vincent Enyeama, the country’s undisputed number one for 12 years.
Eight seasons on from when he was first selected for the squad, Ikeme has found opportunity knocking again and grasped it superbly. National treasures Nwankwo Kanu and Jay-Jay Okocha have been united in their praise.
Flattered though he was to hear the former Arsenal striker saying ‘we gain a son’ after his debut in Tanzania last September had turned into a starring role with his saves during a 0-0 draw in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Dar es Salaam, this taking-to-hearts is no lopsided arrangement. Ikeme’s feelings for his family’s ancestral homeland are equally strong.
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“The timing of the call-up to the squad was a surprise because it was 2007 when I was first named in it,” he says. “Berti Vogts was in charge then and it wasn’t too long after Glenn Hoddle had given me my Wolves debut. Unfortunately, I had to withdraw through injury.
“I had long spells out of the Wolves team after that and time on loan elsewhere. Although I have regained a regular place in the last few years (he now has around 170 appearances for the club), I thought it was a wind-up from a mate when I had this call last summer. I was actually out of the side, with Emiliano Martinez just signed from Arsenal, but things happen when you don’t expect them to.”
Ikeme, 6 foot 3 inches tall and unfailingly laidback as Wolves near the end of an underwhelming second season back in Championship football, may speak with the twang of his West Midlands birthplace but is no innocent on this vast continent.
More than once, he has used the phrase ‘I haven’t dropped from the moon’ if asked how he is coping with the African experience. When we meet at Wolves’ training ground, three miles from their famous Molineux home, Ikeme is at pains to stress that he tries to fully embrace a culture with which his upbringing familiarized him.
“People seem to assume that because I live in Birmingham and was born nearby in Sutton Coldfield that Nigerian life was alien to me,” he says. “But I had been there many times from the age of eight – for funerals and family things. I was certainly aware of my roots.”
“I went about four years ago when my dad, Ikemefuna Ikeme, was made a chief of the village he’s from, near Onitsha in the east of the country. It’s an ancestry, bloodline, thing but the ceremony went on for two days and he hardly slept. He stayed in a shrine where my granddad is buried.”
“Dad came to England in about 1983 to study computing at Aston University. He still lives in Birmingham and I was brought up watching plenty of Aston Villa and Birmingham City.”
“I have tried cooking a few Nigerian dishes but I’m nothing like as good as him, so he brings something round each Monday. Stew, with chicken, goat and mutton, are typical. So are yams and rice. His pepper soup blows my mouth off!”
“I have three or four aunts and uncles over there, some in Lagos. One or two family members were doubtful when I went into football and thought I should get a proper job! But they can see now I made the right choice.”
Ikeme, restricted to a solitary game when Wolves rubbed shoulders with the Premier League elite from 2009-2012, lifts his shirt to show how family pride has influenced his appointments with a tattooist on Wolverhampton’s outskirts. Onora, his middle name and the one given to his great granddad on his dad’s side, appears high on his chest. Those of his dad and granddad show on his left arm. His mother’s dad, in military uniform, is seen on his stomach. His Dad has accompanied him for all his early Nigerian games.
The workload of Wolves’ 46-game league season dictates that trips have been about little more than airports, hotels, training grounds and stadiums. The window on his other world should open wider, though, in a few weeks’ time.
“I will be hoping to stay for an extra few days as long as I am in the squad against Chad in June,” he said. “I plan to take my daughter Mila, who is two-and-a-half, over for the first time.”
“It would be good to learn more about the culture and get better at the language. I’m not the only player to have been born in Europe, so the coach speaks in Pidgin English and am picking up bits of Nigerian as well as having some tapes to listen to.”
“The travelling has been an experience. It’s exhausting because it’s seven or eight hours to Abuja, then a few more hours if it’s an away match. But I’d still rather do that than have the games in Europe. There was a friendly against Cameroon in Belgium where we still had good support but I am keen to visit Nigeria as much as possible.”
“In England, the bus can be quiet. Some players have headphones on, some are having a chat. With the national team, there is singing and dancing in the aisles. That eradicated any nerves I had on the way to the Tanzania game. It’s all in English, a bit religious and spiritual&#8230; someone starts it off and everyone joins in. They have to! It’s more than gentle swaying. There’s a lot of clapping and foot stamping. It’s very rousing and inspirational.”
In case I’m not getting the picture, Ikeme accesses film on his mobile phone of the fans, complete with small band, welcoming the bus in similar fashion for a game against Swaziland.
“It’s good for togetherness because it creates a bond. I might try it on the Wolves lads!” he says.
“We pray together on the bus and before and after training and before and after a game; some Christian, some Muslim.”
So who inspired him? What are his dreams in an international career that is still at the fledgling stage but with an encouraging proportion of clean sheets?
“My heroes were Daniel Amokachi with his famous goal celebration at Everton and in the 1994 World Cup – and Kanu, of course.”
“As well as reaching the Premier League with Wolves, my aim is to qualify and play in the Africa Cup of Nations and then the World Cup in Russia in 2018. That would be a dream. We have a young side, so results should get better.”
“Long term, I would like to do something to help in Nigeria. I have looked into setting up a charity there. It’s not just about chucking money at it. I would like it to be something football-based so I can give back to the people in the community when I have finished playing.”
You can take a man out of Nigeria, but you can’t take the Nigerian out of him.

The Super Eagle With Snowflakes And Stars In  His Eyes

Two sailors from two very different worlds. One never expected to set foot on a boat. The other was born on one but thought his yachting dream washed-up. Together they are striving for gold for Africa.
Asenathi Jim grew up in a mud hut in the outskirts of Fort Beaufort, a town in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. At the age of 10, he thought that was it. By chance, Jim went on holiday to visit his cousins in Simons Town, Cape Town. His cousins were learning to sail and for the first time he set foot on a boat. Forgive us; he took to it like a fish to water.
“It was chance luck that I ended up in a boat in the first place. I was picked up by the right people, I started performing,” says Jim.
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In 2011, the 18-year-old protégé Jim teamed up with his coach, and future racing shipmate, Roger Hudson. The South African sailor grew up in the affluent suburb of Newlands, Cape Town, and on the water. His father had also been an Olympic athlete, but as far as Hudson was concerned his career was over.
“I always had my eye on being an Olympic sailor. When I was 13 years old, I was competing in the under-15 nationals and my dad was going to the Olympics&#8230; I had shelved [the dream of competing in the Olympics] and thought it was over. If you don’t find the right teammate, if you don’t find the right kind of campaign, it’s just not going to work in an Olympic sport,” says Hudson.
Together, Jim and Hudson qualified for the London Olympics in 2012. It was the dream start to a partnership that has lasted six years. Now the 38-year-old Hudson and 21-year-old Jim are sharing an even bigger dream.
“Our goal in the last Olympics [London] was to get into the Olympics, and then we made it, especially when Asenathi was so young. It’s unusual for a sailor to be that age and at the Olympic Games… Our goal this time around is to be in the top 10. That’s the medal race, a very ambitious target, because of the 27 teams there, probably 23 of them are thinking the same thing,” says Hudson.
It’s going to be tough.
On a two-man 470-Class yacht there’s nowhere to hide when winds rip your sail to shreds and snap your mast like a twig. This has been the danger at the 470 African Championship. It’s been a tough week for the 11 teams from Angola, Algeria and South Africa, who tested their mettle over 10 races in the trying winds of Granger Bay, in the shadow of Table Mountain, Cape Town. A true test, if ever, to compete for Africa’s spot at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
The competition was as fierce as the wind. On day two, Hakim Djoulah and Samir Ksouri, from Algeria, were forced to retire after the wind bent their mast and broke two fingers. The pair were in hospital before their wetsuits had dried, dreams of the Olympics as shattered as their fingers.
On the final day, the sea was as calm as a mill pond. The wind was soft and dolphins and seals swam alongside the catamaran.
It was a tight finish; Hudson and Jim claimed gold, a few points clear of the rest of the pack. The pair fought tooth and nail to represent Africa.
Hudson and Jim returned to shore flanked by the other yachts in a small guard of honor. Hudson’s five-year-old niece, Hailey, and seven-year-old nephew, James, jumped aboard to help the exhausted sailors pull their yacht to shore.
Someone who was not surprised to see the pair win was Nikolaos Drougas, a respected trainer on the international sailing circuit and now the coach of the Angolan team.  Back in 2002, Drougas was sent by the international 470 Class to train coaches and sailors. It was here he met Jim.
“Suddenly we found someone special who had talent. I still remember, in my report to the officials, saying we had a raw diamond in the Class,” says Drougas.
At the time, Drougas recalls Jim was living with his grandfather in a shack in the township of Khayelitsha, 30 kilometers outside of Cape Town.
“It was painful for me, he was living in a tin box of Coca-Cola [signs], fitting four or five people inside. It was so touching, this is what convinced me to pull strings from the 470 International Class to support more sailing,” says Drougas.
Still in their wetsuits and with sea spray crystallizing on their foreheads, Hudson and Jim are every inch the conquering heroes. They jump from the boat and give each other a high-five and a hug. It’s been a long journey. It took Jim many years to explain to his family why he wanted to become a professional sailor.
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“My mom wasn’t really convinced about me sailing because most black people were suspicious of sending me into the sea or in a boat. It’s just not in our nature to sit in boats or be a swimmer,” says Jim.
“In the Eastern Cape, no one realized what I was after. I would say that no one cared at the time. Now, when they see me, they are more interested&#8230; At the time they vaguely knew what sailing was, but I also didn’t mention it to them a lot&#8230; I am really stoked that my family members now understand. I spent so much time putting it down in detail,” says Jim.
Hudson’s upbringing is a stark contrast to Jim. He grew up in a family that lived on the sea. Hudson wasn’t the only late bloomer in the family, his father, Dave, went to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona at the age of 46.
“It was inspirational him being part of that team and seeing my dad. I wanted that,” says Hudson.
At the age of 19, Hudson tried to make it as a full-time sailor. He ended up doing a business degree and headed off to Europe to look for work. For seven years, he worked with real estate developers building large scale projects in eastern Europe.
“We were building up finance and sales networks for them in London. It was an entrepreneurial activity that went very well, all in the pre-2008 markets.”
Then in 2008, Hudson took a chance to revive his dream. He came home to found RaceAhead, a non-profit organization, with his father. They wanted to identify and train a new generation of Olympic sailors, one of which was Jim.
“When we team up we have a great synergy, and the combination of our different strengths is very powerful&#8230; It’s a bit like saying opposites attract. We come from such different backgrounds, such different worlds, we are not dealing with the same kinds of qualities. We have different styles and we have different views. Sometimes when you put those two together and have good chemistry you are able to do something quite special,” says Hudson.
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Their dream doesn’t stop in Rio.
“We are looking towards Tokyo. We have a very clear goal, we want to be the very first Olympic sailing team from South Africa to win a medal. The best ever result was a fifth place in the 1956 Melbourne Games. It takes 10 or 15 years to be a team like that. We are hoping to do that in 10,” says Hudson.
There is much more to come from South African sailors.
“Our three training partners came second, third and fourth [in the 470 African Championship], it’s fair to say that at least one of them can make Tokyo,” says Hudson.
Coaching is not as easy as it looks, says Jim.
“I saw it with me and [Hudson], when he was trying to nurture me. Now I can see how difficult it is to try and nurture youngsters into the ranks. Now I can see how difficult it was for [Hudson] to train me, when I have to teach others.”
“In life you start something, then you achieve something that you want, then there is more. You want to do more, beat a record. There is always something you want to beat, whether it’s time or competitors or to win all the races,” says Jim.
And how do both sailors intend to pay for the bills?
“What secures the funding is when you gain a profile for one reason or another. Then that makes you relevant. Normally you gain a profile from getting results. I think what the media like and the sponsors who have come on board like, is the fact that we are a unique South African team. Two from different races, from different backgrounds and parts of the country – two very different people,” says Hudson.
If you thought that after becoming African champions the pair would take some time off to recover, you’d be wrong. The next day the team were on a plane bound for Miami, United States, to compete in their next race. Their hope riding on a steady mast, comradeship, skills and a true wind.

Hope Floats

At the age of 16, while his contemporaries were barely able to hit a football on target, Daniel Amokachi was already a fully-fledged international for Nigeria, and was competing against the best on the continent.
He began, like all African boys of his generation, by kicking an improvised ball in the streets of Kaduna in north-west Nigeria. Strong for his age, he stood out like a sore thumb. Before long, he was elevated to the youth sides of the city’s many territorial leagues.
He also featured for his secondary school team which won the state trophy and went on to play in the national championship, where, against overwhelming odds, they became champions.
In 1989, he was called up for a trial with his local Kaduna team, Ranchers Bees, who played in the top national league. The transition from playing in front of a few hundred students to suddenly finding himself displaying his skills in front of tens of thousands of Kaduna loyalists was a huge gulf but the confident 15-year-old was determined.
When Ranchers Bees faced Ivorian giants, ASEC Mimosas, in a regional tournament, he had no idea that the national team’s recently recruited Dutch coach, Clemens Westerhof, was present. Ranchers Bees won 3-1 with the effervescent Amokachi scoring twice. After the match, Westerhof sought him out.
“Do you know who I am?” the Dutchman asked.
“No,” replied Amokachi.
“I’m Clemens Westerhof, the national team coach, and I want you to play for the national team.”
Amokachi found himself at the 1990 Africa Cup of Nations in Algeria a few months later. Nigeria went all the way to the final where they fell to a solitary goal against the hosts. They had gone to the tournament with little expectation and it was the first step of a journey that would see their star rise over the next decade.
Amokachi’s outstanding performances led to a move to the top Belgian side, Club Brugge, where he initially struggled to adjust to the the unfamiliar environment. He lived with a Belgian couple, Magda and Willie, who became his ‘foster parents’ and made his transition less stressful.
There were some memorable moments.
“I saw the great Jan Ceulemans, Belgium’s World Cup star, carrying a bag of balls to the training session from the dressing room and in true African culture, since he was much older than me, I went to carry the bag for him. He said no and told me that this week it was his turn and that my turn would come, and offered to show me the timetable for players’ duties. It was a learning process for me because it showed that as a team we were all equal irrespective of age, experience or form,” says Amokachi.
He spent four successful seasons in Belgium and was prominent in the Nigerian team that won the Africa Cup of Nations for only the second time in 1994, and that went on to the World Cup in the United States (US) the same year. It was here that Nigeria showed their class by topping their group, beating Bulgaria 3-0, Greece 2-0 and narrowly losing to Argentina 2-1.
In the second round, Nigeria led Italy by a single goal and were two minutes away from reaching the quarterfinal when a defensive error allowed Roberto Baggio to equalize. Baggio went on to score again in extra time and Nigeria were out of the tournament but left an indelible mark. Amokachi believes they could have gone much further.
<div id="attachment_4566" style="width: 230px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-4566" class="size-medium wp-image-4566" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/GettyImages-102304017-220x300.jpg" alt="" width="220" height="300" />DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA &#8211; JUNE 22: Lars Lagerback head coach of Nigeria speaks to Daniel Amokachi, assistant coach during the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Group B match between Nigeria and South Korea at Durban Stadium on June 22, 2010 in Durban, South Africa. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Lars Lagerback;Daniel Amokachi</div>
“It’s the mentality of an African team. We always think it’s over when it’s not over. We were celebrating like we had already won. We forgot that football is 90 minutes.”
Amokachi scored one of the goals of the tournament against Greece, a scorching volley from outside the box, and earned accolades for his strength and skill. Shortly after, Everton Football Club came calling and he became the club’s most expensive player when they paid £3 million for his services.
Moving from the Belgian league to English football was a culture shock and initially Amokachi struggled.
“It’s a totally different ball game. The toughness, the speed is a reality. My nickname was ‘The Bull’ and I had strength and speed but after the first game I knew I had to really work hard. We played Blackburn Rovers in the first game and I had three opportunities that under normal circumstances I would score but each time a defender took the ball away from me. It took me six months to adjust. It was only towards the end of the season that I found my rhythm.”
He won the hearts of the Everton fans when he came off the bench to score twice in the FA Cup semifinal against Tottenham Hotspur to take the team to Wembley for the final. His two goals in 10 minutes etched his name into the club’s history books. Everton went on to beat Manchester United 1-0 in the final, with Amokachi making a substitute appearance.
He made his second World Cup appearance at the 1998 tournament in France, and was hoping Nigeria would go further after their second round exit in 1994, but it turned out to be a torrid time for both him and the team. An errant tackle in training saw him limp off the field.
He missed the first game against Spain, lasted 70 minutes against Bulgaria, but in the third match against Paraguay he felt his knee give way as he warmed up.
“I just walked off, didn’t tell anyone and went to the dressing room and locked myself in the toilet, in tears.”
He had surgery and played for another year but could feel that something was not right and underwent a second operation. A long period of rehabilitation followed. After unsuccessful spells with the Colorado Rapids in the US and Besiktas in Turkey, he made one final attempt with Créteil in France but when his injury recurred during the trial, he informed the club that he wouldn’t be able to continue.
After a discussion with his wife, he decided to give up the game at the young age of 28. It was a heart-rending decision that opened his eyes to life’s realities.
“One day you are up there and then you are down here. All the people you thought were your friends disappear. But that helps you because you now see who your real friends are. It makes you become a man and know what the world is really about. Even in your family, you find out who is really your true family.”
When the dollars were flowing, Amokachi was known for living the highlife and he made choices that he regrets.
“When you are living in that world and you wake up every morning, every week your bank account is credited, whether there is training or not, whether you play or not, that account is credited and you have endorsements left, right and center. You’re making money. You have style, you have class and you want to show it. But, when you sit down and think about it, the reality hits you. It’s not just about making money. You go back to Nigeria at that age of 28, and you see how people suffer and are really struggling, and it makes you realize that the life you were living is a totally different ball game. You think about the money you waste,” he says.
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“Someone will come and tell you they need some working capital and they ask for less than $100. You ask them what they can expect to generate from less than $100 and they just want to have enough to make small cakes and sell on the street to survive. Meanwhile you take out $120,000 to buy a car, and park five cars that you don’t really need and maybe drive them once a month. What are those things for?… You then realize that you need to use money to impact people’s lives and that’s how I’ve been living my life since, helping where I can.”
After his playing days came to an end, Amokachi took up coaching and has served the Nigeria national team as assistant and caretaker coach. In almost a replication of his playing career, he was assistant coach when Nigeria won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2013 and reached the second round of the World Cup in 2014.
At the age of 42, the African game will definitely be hearing the roar from The Bull in the future.

Tears of a wouNded bull

They call her Titanium because she is tough. Three years ago, doctors diagnosed South African extreme fighter Shana Power with a pulmonary embolism; she had 28 clots in her lungs and was lucky to be alive. Never do any form of training, you are on a drug for life, they said. Warfarin was the drug prescribed for her.
“It’s a very serious drug and you have to be very careful when you are on it,” says the 23-year-old Power.
Three years after that disturbing diagnosis, in late 2015, the crowds cheered under the bright lights of the cage at the GrandWest Casino and Entertainment World in Cape Town as she landed a spinning back fist to knock her opponent to the ground.
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It had been a long fight for Power, her first win was against the odd disease. She thankfully opted for a second opinion that changed her life forever. She was told the infection was not genetic and that she was going to be able to overcome it afterall.
Thereafter, Power, born and raised in Johannesburg, trained hard for a year, and made her boxing debut as an amateur in 2013.
“That boxing fight wasn’t just a boxing fight, it was a fight that I had fought for my life, I had overcome adversity and I still was able to do something that people told me I could never do,” says Power.
In 2014, in Cape Town, Power made her amateur debut in extreme fighting, a platform for Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), turning professional as one of very few women.
She had always enjoyed sport like hockey and soccer, and being the only female, finished high school playing in the boys’ team.
“It is nothing new to me, being the only female at Fight Fit Militia gym.” The gym in Sunninghill is an extreme fighting and training facility.
“I started learning about the sport, the culture, the community and what mixed martial arts was, once I started getting involved, I wanted to challenge myself and see where I’m at because I’m constantly competing against males, I wanted to see where I ranked against females and that’s when I asked if it would be a possibility if they would let me fight; from there, it just progressed from amateur to professional.”
At the GrandWest Casino and Entertainment World, Cape Town, where Power made her professional debut, she was also ranked number one in South Africa after she won against England’s extreme fighter Kirsty Davis. It was a highly-anticipated fight.
“It was the way I won my fight that created hype about it, I couldn’t have been happier with that performance. It was a spinning back fist that started off the finish, it was a TKO [Technical Knockout].”
Power says it was her best fight ever because of the experience and the performance.
<div id="attachment_31800" style="width: 691px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31800" class="wp-image-31800 size-large" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Shana-023-681x1024.jpg" alt="" width="681" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Shana-023.jpg 681w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Shana-023-300x451.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Shana-023-600x902.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Shana-023-200x300.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 681px) 100vw, 681px" />Female fighter</div>
Extreme Fighting Championship (EFC), the organization that allows professional athletes to compete in MMA in South Africa, is yet to release the titles for the female divisions. There are a few women who have made their debut and are waiting to be considered for the titles. Power is a flyweight (57 kilograms) contender. If she wins the next big fight, she will be top of the list because there are few women in the sport with her willpower and winning streak.
Power’s favorite technique is Muay Thai, a combat sport that uses elbows, knees, kicks and boxing as well.
“I enjoy and adapted to that discipline better because mixed martial arts used about three or four techniques. Brazilian jiu-jitsu was a very challenging discipline for me, but as time progressed I felt I was starting to understand it more so therefore I’m starting to enjoy it,” she says. Power emphasizes that it takes a lot of hard work to get what you want, and whenever you are stuck or are not progressing, she advises aspiring extreme fighters to just look back and see how far they have come.
“The will and the strength to keep pushing [is important], so just don’t give up, and keep going after your dreams,” she says. It took courage for Power to overcome her illness to become a knockout in her chosen sport. It would take even more courage to step in the cage with her.

Female fighter

Blood, Sweat And Cheers

The Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, in the United States, will host the 78th Masters tournament in April, but this is only the second since it allowed females to join the golf club. But no women will participate in the international major. Instead, they will compete in the Kraft Nabisco Championship, which will take place a week earlier in California and is in its 41st year.
Gender-equality is not much more than a concept in golf, which takes pride in its staunch adherence to tradition. South Africa is one of the countries making strides to close that gap. This year February saw the launch of the Sunshine Ladies Tour, a six-tournament event, each of which carries prize money of R100,000 ($9,430). But is it enough to reignite the game among women who are oft-ignored?
“Women’s professional golf in South Africa was in a wasteland since 2009,” says Margie Whitehouse, the chairperson of the Women’s Professional Golf Association of South Africa (WPGA).
Prior to 2009, the only tournament on the women’s golf calendar was the South Africa Women’s Open, which did not have status abroad and was canceled in 2010 and 2011. When the WPGA elected a new board in 2012, they sought to change that.
“We acknowledged that our members and aspirant professionals were being forced to seek a competitive platform abroad. We set about, immediately, to create a local competitive platform,” says Whitehouse.
The Women’s Open, which is part of the European Tour schedule, is one half of how women are gaining ground on the golf course. The other is the new Sunshine Tour. Like its male counterpart, it too will serve as a qualifying event for the season-ending Investec Cup, a marquee tournament on the local golfing calendar. The men’s event has prize money of R6 million ($562,000), which according to Selwyn Nathan, the Executive Director of the Sunshine Tour, “heightens the sense of camaraderie in the South African golf community”.
For women, the purse is R300,000 ($28,000), but Investec see it as a way to support the fairer sex.
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“By incorporating a ladies element into the Investec Cup 2014, we are indicating support for the commitment, enthusiasm, skill and personal development that is required to succeed in this sporting code. Women’s sport is an uncluttered market commercially, and we look forward to showcasing some of South Africa’s top female golfers as athletes and individuals,” says Janet Larsen, Investec’s Head of Marketing.
Lee-Anne Pace is a Mossel Bay-born golfer, who won three tournaments on the Ladies European Tour in 2013 and was named the European Tour’s Player of the Year for a second time. She hopes to bring more success home to grow the local game.
“It is vital for South African golfers to support the Sunshine Ladies Tour and to help it become a successful and strong competition. As it grows, it will get more money and attract players from overseas. For now it’s just great that there is an opportunity for South African players to compete at home,” she says.
Like many South African golfers, Pace, who started caddying for her father as a teenager to earn pocket money, had to leave South Africa, the country of her birth, to kick-start her golf career. She received a scholarship from the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma and turned professional after representing the institution. Soon, she hopes to receive her full card for American tournaments, called the LPGA. With that will come increased earnings and the opportunity to compete in events such as the Kraft Nabisco Championship, both prestigious and lucrative.
She does not want to focus on the pay discrepancy too much.
“The men earn more money than us, but you know that going into this career. It should not really make a difference to how you approach the game. I am not too worried about the male-female inequality in golf. I am just enjoying myself and my career. I love golf and the challenges it holds and to be able to do it for a living is such a privilege.” For now, she is perfecting her swing.

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