Fond farewell to champion golfer
LEGENDARY sportsman and schoolteacher Rowan Ramtahal will be remembered for his love of golf and his love for people.
Ramtahal, 73, of Reservoir Hills, died on Monday after a short illness.
Ramtahal who was born in 1949 in Alpine Road, Springfield, started his career as a soccer player.
At age 10, Ramtahal’s passion for golf began when he started caddying for some of the top Indian golfers at the time. He became inspired by selftaught Sewsunker Papwa Sewgolam, who defied apartheid and became a top international golfer.
Ramtahal first met Sewgolam at Durban’s Currie’s Fountain.
He began playing like Sewgolam and went on to use the reverse or “Papwa” grip for most of his career.
Ramtahal went on to compete at provincial and national levels. He travelled the country and competed at the Western Province Open, the Eastern Province Open, the Transvaal Open and the Natal Open.
He then decided to take on coaching and taught people of all ages the basics of golf. He was also a golf correspondent for POST.
Ashok Ramdeyal, Ramtahal’s childhood friend, said he lived in the same area as Ramtahal and from the time they met, they became inseparable.
“We played soccer together. Rowan played professional football for Verulam Suburbs and for other clubs.”
In the 1980s, after turning to golf, Ramdeyal said they became founding members of the Central Durban Golf Club.
“We grew the club from six members to over 200 members.
“We played mostly in the nonwhite tournaments in the amateur ranks and soon became administrators.”
He said Ramtahal went on to become a schoolteacher and went into business, but they still remained close friends.
Ramtahal was initially a physical education teacher and afterwards an English teacher.
He taught at several schools and worked at Burnwood High before he retired in his fifties.
Ramdeyal said he spoke to Ramtahal two hours before he died.
“I said, ‘Rowan you sound sick. Let me pick you up and take you to hospital’. But before we knew it, he was gone.”
Shashika Ramtahal Sewchunder, Ramtahal’s only child, said she would miss everything about her father.
“I don’t know anyone who had a zest for life like he did. He was the strongest person I knew. We thought he would outlive us all.”
She said her father loved golf so much that in the late 1980s he would travel across the border from Piet Retief to Nhlangano in Swaziland to play golf because of apartheid restrictions at the time.
“He would play golf, even when he could not see where the ball was going anymore.”
She said her father bonded with everyone he came into contact with and even remained friends with some of his school pupils.
“He had such an amazing impact as a teacher. He told me recently that he wanted to come to my son’s school to do a few English lessons so that he could impart his knowledge to the future generation.”
Sewchunder said her father shaped her into the woman that she is today.
“He is in how I live my life, how I raise my children.”
Ramtahal’s funeral took place at the Clare Estate Crematorium on Tuesday. He leaves his wife Indhra, his daughter Shashika, his son-in-law Navin Sewchunder, his grandsons Aadhi and Aavir, as well as a host of friends and relatives.