The Sunday Mail
Tinashe Kusema
Deputy Sports Editor
THE Covid-19 pandemic has provided contrasting fortunes for two golfers — Gary Thompson, who is the president of the Zimbabwe Golfers Association (ZGA), and one of the country’s representatives on the Sunshine Tour — Ryan Cairns.
Thompson looks to have been the hardest hit, as the 53-year-old revealed that the pandemic has been nothing, but a hindrance.
“First of all I wish to state that a lot of these will be my perspectives, and I cannot endorse this as the president of the Zimbabwe Golfers Association.
“That being said; it boggles the mind how the pandemic has had such an effect on golf in Zimbabwe because there have been no cases at Royal Harare, no caddies have fallen down at Chapman Golf Club.
“There has been no one sick at Hillside or at one of our courses. God’s fresh air is still fresh in Zimbabwe.
“No golfer is dying or coughing out their lungs down at the fairways or on the rough, just maybe disappointed that they can’t watch that little white ball go into the hole,” Thompson said.
He seems to have a different take on the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This is a pandemic of fear; it’s something that started outside our borders, and I laud the Government for taking the responsible actions to ensure that they protect their people — golfers or otherwise.
“The experience that most golfers have gone through is probably a sense of appreciation of how good we have it, and how thankful we are to walk in freedom and not house arrest.
“However, while we respect that certain measures had to be taken to ensure that we stay safe, when you put a good healthy golfer on lockdown, that is unfair.
“Most of our golfers have had dark days because they make their living playing golf and dark days are for our corporates that cannot put on golf days.
“It was hard for them to put on these golf days before the pandemic, and it will be harder for them to do so afterwards,” Thompson said.
Cairns, however, has a different take on things.
For the 36-year-old, the last couple of months have been mostly about trying to make the best out of a bad situation.
Cairns — who joined the Sunshine Tour in 2007 and has two wins on tour — was not having the best of runs prior to Covid-19 and the lockdown afforded him time to reflect and improve.
“I wasn’t playing too great prior to the Covid-19 outbreak as I struggled a bit through the summer stretch of the Sunshine Tour, but I have been putting in a lot of work during the lockdown.
“I have been working on my fitness, doing a lot of running and cardio, stretching and have a hitting net set up at my house that I have been using to work on my swing and flight scope.
“Coming through lockdown, the results are starting to show as I am now starting to play better golf.
“I have been shooting some low scores at Royal Harare, actually made 10 birdies in a round during my last session on the course,” Cairns said.
“The impact of the virus globally has just been devastating, and it put a spanner in the works for most professionals.
“It’s been tough for a lot of the guys on the Sunshine Tour and every other circuit not to be able to play and eke out a living.
“Personally, it’s been pretty weird to be home for as much as I have been.
“For the last 15 years or so that I have been a pro, I have travelled for most of the year, playing in all sorts of places all over the world”.
Cairns has tried his best “to make lemonade out of the lemons’’ during the lockdown period.
“It’s been nice to be home, spending some quality time with my wife and our dogs. We actually moved just before the lockdown, and have since settled into the new house.
“We have had a lot better experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic than most golfers, we are very blessed in that way.
“It’s been fun, I have done many things I never thought I would ever do, like starting a vegetable garden and a few DIY (do it yourself) projects. These have spared me the psychological stress the virus and lockdown would have ordinarily had on me,” he said.
