Hi All
I’ve always believed that a good manager does not spend the whole workday sitting behind a desk with in-baskets that never seem to empty. One needs to regularly “Break the Pattern” of hard slog. Sometimes all it takes is a coffee date with a long-forgotten friend or business colleague. Another way to do this is to keep your running kit close on hand so that you can just switch off your computer midday and go for a hard jog around the block. You return to the office feeling totally different and raring to make good decisions.
I’m a keen golfer who feels that my best golfing days are still to come. It’s a well-known fact that leading businessmen make good contacts from having regular outings on the golf course – some of these interactions are about business-related matters where your paths cross in often unexpected ways; on other occasions, one meets up with folks that are providing inspiring benefits for their community.
I’ve been a member of Nomads Golf for the past 33 years and we go out as a group of similar-minded golfers to play at a different course once a month. The overall objectives of Nomads are to have fun playing a sport we all enjoy whilst raising funds and awareness for some of the less privileged in our society. Nomads started in South Africa over 50 years ago and has now grown internationally being played in some 13 different countries. Almost all of them were represented in our annual Nomads Nationals tournament played over 3 days last week in Victoria Falls on the challenging Elephant Hills. I felt the course was in very good condition: there were very few places with no grass coverage and the one club length drops on the fairway meant that, as long as you hit your drives down the middle, one always had a better than decent lie to play your next shot.
Those of you who have played there before will know that there is a lot of wildlife walking naturally around the course – I was witness to Impala, Warthog, Waterbuck and the perennial Vervet Monkeys with a special sighting of a Chobe Bushbuck crossing the 4th fairway. There are, of course, local rules like free drops if your ball lands in an Impala Midden! Then there are the melodic bird calls forever harmonising the background as you play along. A noteworthy tune one often hears in those surrounds is the piercing baby cry made by the larger Trumpeter Hornbill.
The overall champion of champions was Zambian-based, Aaron Gumbi, with our Mashonaland betting pool being won by the very flamboyant Pascal Musavaya. Most of the guys join in this event for the humour and the camaraderie with the Cowboy bar being the centre of attention every afternoon. The raucous 27 guys that flew in from Zambia were voted the most fun-loving club of the tournament taking over the mantle from the long-standing Botswana boys headed by the effervescent Taffy Williams.
See you on the course soon. Ciao Mike G.
