I noted yesterday that Desvonde Botes won the Southern Africa Tour event, but not without controversy.

In short, one of his playing partners, Michiel Bothma, accused him of placing his ball well in front of his marker on the opening few holes. Bothma reportedly took his allegation of cheating to Botes while Botes was putting on the fifth hole, and (says Botes) the allegation, and particuarly the timing of it, shook him up sufficiently to contribute to Botes bogeying the hole as well as the following hole.

“There is no way it happened and I don’t know what he saw,” he said. “On the first hole (the hole Bothma claimed to first notice the incident) I didn’t even mark my ball because I was left with a tap-in putt.

Then he brought it up while I was putting on the fifth, which you just don’t do, and I bogeyed the hole. It really bothered me, but I just tried to block it out of my mind.”

I agree. Bothma sounds like a malcontent, especially if you factor in that he once sued the Sunshine Tour to let him play in an event he was ejected from for not participating in the Pro-Am and that the third member of the group, Jean Hugo, denied seeing Botes doing anything wrong.

Maybe Botes should call Monty. He can empathize.