ON ASSIGNMENT BLOG

On a long car journey with children one of my favourite games to play is the ‘Alphabet Game’. This is where you go through the alphabet attempting to name an animal for each letter. So little Johnnie in the back starts with aardvark and little Julie then goes on to baboon and so on until you reach Z for zebra. Certain letters are clearly easier than others. E for elephant is always a shoo-in but those trying to show off can use eel or earwig.

When G comes up I always hope that it will be my turn. In an effort to impress children with my great knowledge (and also hopefully get a small laugh) I always go for ‘gnu’. Not for me the predictability of gorilla or giraffe. Gnu fits the bill, a little like underpants or ointment (although perhaps that's just me), as a word that it's hard not to smile at.

My visit to the Legends Golf and Safari resort has turned this game on its head somewhat. For a start I have a great new K: kudu - a variety of antelope. My new spiel to impress seven year olds will, should I be lucky enough to get K, be something like this: ‘Kudu – a type of antelope that I saw and then ate on the same day (not the same one I think, though).’ This is guaranteed to create a tremendously impressed ‘Really?’ from the back of the car.

But today when I was out playing on the simply amazing golf course at Legends I finally came across my first real live gnu. Each of the holes has been designed and subsequently named after some of the biggest names in golf. The hole we were about to play was created by former world number one (and huge inspiration to me during my challenge) Vijay Singh. As we stood on the tee Pete Richardson, head of PR and marketing at Legends, nonchalantly remarked, ‘Look, there are zebra on the side of the fairway, oh and look down there, those are gnu.’

And so they were. Bona fide gnu. Casually meandering their way across the course and stopping for a brief rest in one of the bunkers. Next year they'll be allowing a few giraffe to wander free across the course as well. Everything about this incredible resort turns my normal preconceptions upside down. At home I'm used to seeing rabbits on the course – the concept of seeing a couple of giraffe strolling down the fairway is almost too hard to comprehend.

But tomorrow I expect these preconceptions to be shattered once again. For tomorrow is the million dollar day. The day I stand on a cliff face and shoot at a target exactly 400 metres below me in my quest to make a million dollars from a hole in one...

To find out if John Richardson made his million-dollar hole in one check back in November.