A teenage girl from Durbanville, who only started playing golf a mere four years ago with her father, has made it up the ladder so fast that she is playing off a scratch handicap.
Not only this, but Jordan Rothman, a 15-year-old learner at Curro Durbanville, beat the country’s number one ranked senior woman in the SA Matchplay in Stellenbosch last year.
She was also a member of the WP senior team that won the interprovincial championship last year.
Her latest achievement sees her being the first girl to qualify for the finals of the Bridge Fund Managers Junior Series, a national series of 18 events sanctioned by GolfRSA.
In the finals to be held in April, Jordan will compete against some of the country’s best u.19 boy golfers for the grand prize of an all-expenses-paid trip to the USA to play in the prestigious Junior North and South Championship at Pinehurst.
Jordan loved playing netball when she was younger. “But I kept breaking my fingers and twisting my ankles,” she says.
Her sporting life was transformed when she went to the golf driving range with her father, Ian Rothman, about four years ago.
“I thought that if I started playing I’d get to spend more time with him,” says Jordan.
“When we got home he said to my mom, ‘this girl can really hit a ball’.
“He told me if I’d prove my commitment to the game by hitting 1000 balls at the practice range, he would sign me up for lessons.”
Just two months later she eagerly reported that she had hit 1400! The lessons began and so did her speedy rise up the national rankings.
She qualified for the finals after finishing third in the Bridge Fund Managers Junior Series event at Durbanville Golf Club on 5 January. She was in sizzling form, making birdies on the first two holes and grabbing the tournament lead when she birdied the sixth hole to go four under par.
A gale-force wind put paid to a record-breaking round, but Jordan bravely battled the conditions and had a putt for birdie on 18 to take the tournament lead at three under.
A disastrous four putts later, she had to settle for an even par round – a momentary lapse that cost her the tournament win.
The good news was she still qualified for the finals because the first and second place finishers, Tyran Snyders and Sam Simpson, had already won events in this year’s Bridge Junior Series.
Jordan’s career highlights so far include beating SA senior number one, Kajaj Mistry, in the second round of the SA Matchplay last year and being part of the title-winning Western Province team at the SA Women’s Interprovincial Championship, also last year.
Jordan’s goal is to hone her craft on the challenging college circuit in the USA before turning professional.
She is getting invaluable career advice from South Africa’s greatest woman golfer, Sally Little, a winner of two Majors.
“I met Sally Little at Kuils River Golf Club last year. She congratulated me on my play and invited me join her for two rounds at Metropolitan Golf Club, which was a privilege,” says Jordan.
The country’s best boy golfers will need to keep a watchful eye on their skirt-clad rival.
“We got involved with the series to boost junior golf and we have been delighted to see several players from the SA Golf Development Board excel in the nine events held so far,” says Paul Stewart, executive director at Bridge Fund Managers.
“It has also been terrific to see the likes of Crystal Beukes and now Jordan Rothman flying the flag for girl golfers. Providing opportunities for this rich pool of young talent will ensure a very bright future for South Africa golf,” Stewart says.
