NEWS AND NOTES
The Hidden Golfers of South Africa
Posted: Wed November 12, 1997
As he stood in a muddy field neighboring one of South Africa's
poorest squatter settlements on a rainy afternoon last summer,
Peter Biehl first came face-to-face with the Hidden Golfers of
Khayelitsha. The field serves as a makeshift course for about 30
squatters from Khayelitsha, a sprawl of shacks where
unemployment is estimated to be almost 50%. With a ragged
collection of old clubs and balls culled from trash bins,
junkyards and swap meets, the golfers travel from vacant lot to
vacant lot, hitting balls toward imaginary greens, sinking putts
in holes they have dug into the earth and conducting informal
after-school golf clinics for Khayelitsha's activity-starved
children.
Biehl is the father of Amy Biehl, the Stanford swimmer and
Fulbright scholar who was stabbed to death in 1993 while running
from a mob in South Africa, where she had been working as an
advocate for racial and gender equality. Since his daughter's
death, Biehl and his wife, Linda, have traveled often to South
Africa, where they have organized several charitable projects
through the Amy Biehl Foundation. During one of these trips
Peter heard of the Hidden Golfers. In July a photographer friend
who knew the golfers set up the meeting. "They play in the
fields," says Biehl. "Sometimes their balls find the
settlement's few plate-glass windows. When that happens, they
become hidden."
The group's leaders—Thembisile Gamzana, Gregory Gonbe and Vusi
Sixhasa—told Biehl of their dream to have a permanent teaching
spot in the settlement, which is on Cape Flats, just east of
Cape Town. When Biehl returned to the U.S., he contacted Larry
Moriarty, a former fullback for the Houston Oilers and the
Kansas City Chiefs who now runs Moriarty Charities, a foundation
that funds youth sports programs. "It didn't take any time to
decide to fund this project," says Moriarty. "I see this growing
very, very fast."
Ground was recently broken on the Khayelitsha Golf Club, which
will consist of a driving range and a practice putting green
that will be lit so they can be open around the clock. Next
summer Biehl, who lives at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif., plans
to bring one of the Hidden Golfers, Gamzana, to the U.S. to play
in a pro-am hosted by Kansas City running back Marcus Allen in
Santa Barbara, Calif.
The primary goal of the Hidden Golfers, though, is bringing the
sport to the settlement's children. "They don't just teach the
fundamentals of golf; they teach them the ethics of the game,
the history, the sportsmanship," says Biehl. "It's especially
neat because the members of this group know of my daughter and
her love for the people and their country. This is something Amy
would have been proud to be a part of."
Issue date: November 17, 1997
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