GOLFER AT 92 SHOWS OTHERS A THING OR TWO ABOUT HITTING THE BALL STRAIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE AND NOTCHING UP PUTTS

(Albert Funga with his playing friends – Sonny Moodley (74), Tim Doorsamy Mathen (73), Johnny Reddy (76) By Subry Govender

(Albert Funga at the Windsor Park Golf Course) When people reach the ripe old age of 90 and more, many of them say they are “dusted, down and out”. But this is not the case with a former ship engineer, 92-year-old Albert Funga, who plays a round of golf at the Windsor Park municipal golf course in Durban every Thursday morning. I came across the sprightly old man (or shall I say “young man”) when I was teamed up with him in a four-ball during a tournament at the course recently. At his age I did not expect him to pull his own cart or walk the 18 holes. He had his own recently-purchased two wheeler to play his game. Playing off a 36-handicap, one would have expected the ageing golfer to hit the ball into the trees and all over into the rough edges and bushes.

(Albert Funga with his playing friends) - But throughout the game, he surprised the other golfers by hitting the ball straight down the middle on the fairway, as far as 100 or 120 metres. On a par 3 he was on the green for two, on par fours he was on the green for three or four and on par fives, he was on the green for four, five or six. His putting was above par and making three or four points was not a big achievement. On this particular day (July 14 2016), he won second prize with 42 points. He was also a great sport and did not allow his age to deter him from being active at the tee-off points or on greens. He helped to pick up the tees of his fellow golfers after they had hit their drives, bending and picking the balls after completing his putting and even holding the flag while his fellow golfers were finishing off their putting. Funga, who lives at the Waterfall Retirement Village with his 93-year-old wife, Diana, rises at 4am every Thursday morning to get ready and to drive to Durban to join about 20 friends for the morning of golf. The first four ball tee-off at 6:30am. “I started playing golf at the Irene golf course, near Pretoria, when I was 20-years-old and doing my apprenticeship in engineering in the Pretoria area in the 1940s,” said Funga. “I remember at that time I used to pay two-and-half shillings for a round of golf and six pence for a caddy. I also played at the Germiston Golf Club and at all the golf courses in KwaZulu-Natal from Umzimkulu to Pongola. “Except for seven or eight years while I was out at sea working on ships, I have been playing golf now for 72 years,” he said.

According to the passionate golfer, his healthy long life is primarily due to his family background, his participation in sporting activities, especially golf, his strenuous work life as an engineer until his retirement in 1990, and his sober eating and drinking habits. The son of a Portuguese immigrant from Madeira, Funga was part of a large family of five sisters and four brothers. Although his father was a hard man who insisted on him concentrating on his school work and his apprenticeship as an engineer, he found time to play rugby and football in the Johannesburg region where he grew up. After graduating as an engineer in the 1940s, he worked for a company in Randburg before going to sea in 1948 for seven years. During this period he worked on the Union Castle from 1950 to 1955. He also during this period in 1952 married his wife who was from the small village of Romsey in England. After he returned to South Africa the same year, he worked for companies such as SAPPI, Dorman Long, Dorbyl and Samta Tools. When he fully retired in 1990, he started to play golf on a regular basis, at least two and three times a week “to keep fit and to generally enjoy life”. At the end of every golf game, he has one or two beers with his fellow team mates. And when he’s not playing golf, his days are taken up maintaining his two old motor cars – a Datsun Palsa which he has owned for the past 33 years and a Ford sedan, which he has kept for the past 16 years. “After the guarantees on the cars expired, I have been maintaining them myself. As an engineer I like to do all the maintenance and repairs myself,” he said. His days are also taken up looking after his wife, “who is not well”, and doing odd jobs around the house.

(Albert Funga enjoying a beer at the Athlone Golf Club) To relax, he has a set drinking pattern when not playing golf. “I have one beer every afternoon and then before supper, I have a double brandy. Then during supper I have a glass of red wine. My wife has a glass of white wine. “Then after supper, just before going to bed at 10pm, I have a double whisky.” When asked why he does not have a single brandy and whisky instead of a double, his response was as colourful as his life: “A bird cannot fly on one wing and that’s why I have doubles.” He now also cooks his own food. He does not buy any fast foods whatsoever. “Fast food is dangerous for our health,” he says. Asked how long he wants to continue to play golf, he responded by saying: “Another 10 years”. This means he will only throw away his clubs at the age of 102. Without any prodding, Funga said his long life is not attributed only to golf and healthy living but also to “lots of sex”. “But my wife will not like me to say this.” He and his wife have three children, two are settled in Australia and one in England. They also have six grand-children and six great-grand-children. All his children and grand-children are accountants, lawyers and business people.

(Funga with family members at their traditional village in Madeira Island) The sprightly old golfer has two memories about his surname and his date of birth that he will not forget easily. When his father arrived from the Madeira Island in the year 1900 at the age of 14, he went to the immigration office in Johannesburg to register his status. When his father was asked what was his surname, his father responded by saying: “D-arougo”, which was the family name from the village of Prazeres in Madeira. The immigration officer, without checking, wrote “Funga”. “From that day onwards our surname became Funga.” Then when he was born, the person who delivered him was a mid-wife who forget the date of his birth – November 23 1924. When she went to register him, she gave his birth date as December 11 1924. “These two episodes in my life will live in me for a long time,” he says. In order not to forget his roots and to pay tribute to his heritage, Funga took his entire family to Madeira three years ago and visited his father’s village of Prazeres. “We have no land there in the village but it’s a paradise that one should visit on a regular basis.” He’s the only surviving member of the Funga siblings. One elder sister lived up to the age of 94. - Ends – July 15 2016 subrygovender@gmail.com