I’ve yearned to play Humewood since I lifted a 7-iron from my Dad’s bag and began thwacking balls in the garden. Bracketed with other famous courses, Humewood is part of golf lore. My maternal grandfather, Jim Fyfe, had golf flowing in his Scottish blood. He cut down a half-set of old clubs and equipped me with a self-made practice apparatus. Battered ball nailed to elastic string and spike.
Humewood exudes golf as played for centuries. A classic links course sketched into windswept coastal brushland. The club-house sits grandly as a ship on the high seas. An awkward, apparently unchartered, flip-side is carried in the stiff breeze. Humewood is the embodiment of colonialism.
We played “Millionaires golf”, the course our own. Not another soul threading the undulating fairways. No internationals teeming blustery dale and hallowed hall. Were the course blown whole to the Scotland coast there’d be a tee-time waiting list stretching to the next generation.
A challenging shot for all. In the rush to eradicate history and / or embrace a shared future, facilities such as Humewood at risk of being cast off as greenskeepers rubble. That which might otherwise draw rich tourism dollars for all floats adrift at sea.
I sense too that Humewood is off-kilter with PE’s modern model of success as an international transit hub. Golfing at Humewood demands a longer stay. To this I say, make it happen. Tread in the spike-marks of legends. It’s bucket-list quality for those with golf running in their veins.
Cam and I battled valiantly in the wind. I cursed the pot-bunkers but did so with a light heart. Cam putted for eagle and, as many before, left himself a 10-footer for birdie. The golfing gods shone kindly upon the young man. He drained the putt and pumped the air as if the SA Open Championship had been wrested from a legend.
Yours in golf
Graeme and Cameron
PS – Golf tour enthusiasts. 5 course Eastern Cape Golf Tour. Humewood, Royal Port Alfred, The Belmont, Fish River, Wedgewood.
GRAEME HOLMES
Before moving back to Grahamstown in Oct 2017, Graeme was a bank executive based in the big smoke and craziness of Joburg. He has 20 years’ experience in the Payments Industry. He is a Chartered Accountant, has a Masters in Management by Research (MMR) from Wits Business School, and attended an Advanced Management Programme (AMP) offered by INSEAD (The Business School for the World!) in France.
Graeme is the founder of The Grahamstown Project. It’s simple. He says, “Grahamstown is a microcosm of South Africa. If we can’t get this place to function properly then the whole country is stuffed. Many of the troubles we experience as a country today have their roots here in Grahamstown. it is here where black and white people first engaged in conflict on the African continent. It is here where 9 wars of dispossession over 100 years took place and virtually destroyed the amaXhosa nation. But we are where we are. I don’t have a British passport and the boat-trip back to where my ancestors came from is exorbitantly expensive. Furthermore, this is my home. I am a son of Africa. We must work together to redress the injustices of the past and move as one into a brighter future.”
Graeme is an avid historian, writer, vlogger and public speaker. Like and follow the Facebook page. Join him on a tour. Contact him. He would love that.