TRIBUTE | Remembering 'Old Fox' John Bland

Veteran golf writer Grant Winter remembers some Dunhill Cup magic from John Bland, who died aged 77 on Tuesday after a stellar career on the fairways of the world.

After 11 years of isolation, South Africa returned to international team golf in the 1991 edition of the 16-nation Dunhill Cup at St Andrews. Gary Player, John Bland and David Frost were chosen to represent South Africa with the United States dream team of Curtis Strange, Fred Couples and Steve Pate the top seeds.

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This writer was the Argus Group's golf writer at the time and, super excited, was sent over to Scotland to cover the tournament - a momentous occasion in the history of South African golf.

However, the excitement turned to gloom as early as the first round on day one when it looked like the South Africans were about to be sent packing back home by lowly Switzerland.

Then Bland, golf pundits called him the Old Fox because he was such a shrewd shot-maker, holed two of the biggest putts of his long career to keep South Africa alive on a chilly, wet day with the Grand Old Course enveloped in mist.

Playing against Paolo Quirici, who had achieved little of note on the big stage, Bland had to knock in a pressure-packed, slippery 12-footer at the fiendishly difficult Road Hole (No 17) to save par. If he had missed that putt South Africa would have lost the tie against the Swiss, who had to pre-qualify just to get into the tournament.

The two players then went on to complete their rounds in two-over-par 74s, which meant the tie going into extra time as Player had lost his match and Frost won his to leave the score riding on a knife-edge at 1-1.

The first sudden-death hole was halved in par-4s, as was the