Winning is a choice

Congratulations to Academy player Jordan van Niekerk on winning last week’s Premier Medal with a score of 69 on the West Course at Royal Johannesburg & Kensington GC. Also well done to Seamus Leech (75), Julia Jacobs (79), and Fred Njoroge (87) for achieving personal bests.

Jordan Van Niekerk

Congratulations to Michael Wallace on winning last week’s Junior Academy Medal with a score of 71 on the West Course at Royal Johannesburg & Kensington GC. The win extends Michael’s lead at the top of our Junior Order of Merit.

Michael Wallace

Tournament Results

Taking the game to the next level

Well done to Reece Mckain (14th) and Bernard Meyer (T18) on their finishes in the KZN Open Strokeplay at Selbourne CC. Bernard moves up to 85th in the Golf RSA national rankings with that result.

Performance Tip

Fail forward with Phil

There is no better golfer to learn from at the moment than Phil Mickelson, having made history as the oldest winner of a major by winning the PGA Championship last week.

The following quote is from a tweet that Phil posted the week before the event:

“I’ve failed many times in my life and career and because of this, I’ve learned a lot. Instead of feeling defeated countless times, I’ve used it as fuel to drive me to work harder. So today, join me in accepting our failures. Let’s use them to motivate us to work even harder.”

Image source

Not Just Golf

New Training Facility for BSI Football

We are excited to announce the development of a new football campus, training facility, and home ground for Balderstone Sports Institute at the Modderfontein Sports Complex.

A multi-year lease has been taken on the sports complex, which is located in the picturesque area of Modderfontein with easy access from the North, South, and East of Gauteng. The first phase of development has started already, as we prepare the sports fields for training and play within the next few months.

The facility includes a 1,700 m2 clubhouse, two football pitches, a half-sized training pitch, and two flood-lit 5-aside pitches.

The entire facility will be renovated as a complete campus for our high-performance academy programmes. It will also provide the opportunity to open up our programmes to a younger age group, as we seek to develop more and more local talent to compete on the international stage. The facility will be fully operational from January 2021; however, we will open up certain areas throughout this year.

Technical Director, Zeca Marques has this to say about the facility: “This is the vision that we had from the outset, and will take the training to the next level. From the player's perspective, the focus is here for the full day. They arrive in the morning for the education, the training, the recovery, everything is on-site, so it’s a more focused approach to the program. Also, when you look at the surroundings it’s a lovely, serene campus that gives you a sense of tranquillity. So, when the players arrive there’s nothing else to think about, they just focus on what they have to do on a daily basis.”

Director of Performance Eurico Marques reiterated: “This new project fills us with a great sense of pride. Modderfontein has been a place in which many players have developed their love and passion for the game. To have the opportunity to restore this fantastic facility to its glory years, bring football back, and create a world-class environment for the next generation to reach their dreams is something that excites us an organisation.”

BSI Founder Michael Balderstone was equally enthused: “From day one of establishing our football division, we have been planning our own exclusive facility. The BSI Football Campus will allow us to design and control our training and development environment completely, providing the optimum incubator to nurture talented young players. We can’t wait to get started there."