Extracted from the Senior Golfers’ Society of EASTERN PROVINCE NEWSLETTER 02 / 2025
- Joined Senior Golfers’ Society of EC in January 1997
- Their second oldest active member.
Rod’s early years were spent in East London, although he learned his golf on the oil greens of Smithfield Golf Club in the Southern Free State. He can be considered a World War II golf trainee. During the war he and his mother were sent to stay with his grandparents in Smithfield. His grandparents were keen golfers and that was the start of his golfing career.
His early education was at De La Salle College in East London. He later moved to Selborne Junior School as the priests didn’t like him questioning how a virgin could give birth to Jesus. His father accepted a job in Port Elizabeth and Rod went to Grey for his high school years.
After school, he joined Standard Bank where one day, he was approached by a client who worked Ford Motor Company asking him if he would like to take up employment at Ford. As the offer and salary were very tempting, he resigned from the bank and at the beginning of the next month, arrived at Ford to start his new job. No one at Ford knew anything about his appointment and to make matters worse, the person who had approached him was no longer working there. However, after much toing and froing, they found a job for him and, so began a career in the motor industry where he held jobs with Ford, Renault and Volkswagen in Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Johannesburg.
Just prior to his marriage, he was appointed to take up a position in the Free State. Later, while on honeymoon in Durban, his boss requested him to cut short his honeymoon as the job in Bloemfontein had to be taken up immediately.
Most of his career was spent with VW, where he was based in Johannesburg, although he opted to live in Benoni. Rod was transferred to VW Uitenhage in 1980, where he got involved in road running and golf was out of favour. He completed 21½ Comrades, 14 Two Oceans, countless marathons and half marathons (estimates + 200) 65 Ultra marathons (in excess of 50kms) including the Washie 100 Miler. This ultra-marathon is run between Port Alfred and East London and participants are allowed 26 hours to complete the race. One may question why 21½ Comrades. Rod comments that he wasn’t having the best of runs on the day when a fellow runner, who wasn’t in much better shape, told Rod that there was a great pub with ice-cold beer around the corner. Beer won and that was the end of the race – and his participation in the Comrades. With retirement looming, he decided to take up golf once again and from 1995 has been an active golfer, currently playing an average of 4 rounds per week.
Rod has three children, Cheryl (living in London), Glynn (living in Port Elizabeth) and Gavin (living in Arnhem, Netherlands). Rod is also the proud grandfather of 6 grandchildren and 2 great-granddaughters.
Shortly, Rod will be going to London, not only to meet up with his family but also to watch the Proteas play Australia in the world cricket final at Lords. He also had the opportunity to attend the Ryder Cup in Paris in 2018.