Golf Coaching Academy

Miss South Africa 2020, Shudufhadzo Musida, is a firm believer in the power of education, especially for young women. Her focus on education led her to aid in equipping young, aspirant, golfers with tools so that they can continue learning life skills. Musida, at a ceremony at the golf club on Wild Coast Sun’s scenic sea-view golf course, handed over six sets of clubs, as well as 15 sets of apparel, including shoes, shirts, caps, and pants, valued at R54,000.

Golfing professional Arnold Mentz, who runs the Wild Coast Sun Hotel and Casino Resort’s Golf Coaching Academy believes that teaching golf is secondary to imparting essential life skills. “Golf teaches certain values which other sports do not have,” Mentz said. “Honesty, integrity, sharing, respect, perseverance and courtesy. These core values not only resonate with Sun International’s values, they also help aspiring golfers to become better citizens in the long run.”

This is why Musida has chosen to support the golf coaching academy – she’s a strong advocate for education that enables young adults to thrive in life. She is a particular advocate of mental health education, and feels that the skills the youngsters earn there will help them have happy, balanced, lives. “Mental health is so often overlooked, but it needs to be a key priority, especially in an age of Covid-19 when we are deprived of the human contact we need. The interactions these young people learn on the golf course, and the coaching they get in life skills, is beyond value,” she says.

Each week, Mentz instructs between 15 and 20 boys and girls ranging in age from eight to eighteen, who attend local schools in the Amadiba Administrative area. On a Friday afternoon, they play and learn on-course rules and regulations, Saturday mornings find them on the resort’s challenging 18-hole championship golf course that stretches along the stunning Wild Coast, practicing putting, chipping and bunker play.

The Gold Coaching Academy has been running since the end of 2017.