Earlier today, videos started doing the rounds showing a man and a woman stealing golf drivers from Stellenbosch Golf Club.

Many alleged that the man in the video is Earl Rose, the former Springbok.

To see those videos, click here.

When contacted by the South African, Stellenbosch Golf Club said that the incident is now a police matter, and they would not “rule out nor identify” Rose.

As previously stated, Earl’s wife Amor has also called us to say that she is currently in Namibia, and is not the woman in that video. She added that Earl was not with her, and is currently in Cape Town.

If you happen to come across Earl’s profile on Facebook and hit that ‘About’ tab, here’s what you find. The screenshot below (from Facebook Mobile) shows that he likes ‘Dan Carter’ and ‘NZ Rugby Players’.

That’s not really of interest (I cannot find any likes on South African players, although his ‘Friends’ list includes a number of current and former South African professional players), but being a member of groups where you can flog second-hand golf goodies has certainly caught the eye.

Everyone’s looking to score a good deal on golf clubs, but in light of the videos doing the rounds at present, people were always going to point those out.

That reminds me, I best go unlike a bunch of pages on Facebook. I imagine it’s only a matter of time until some wise guy edits Earl’s Wikipedia page.

Over on News24, they’ve spoken with Grant Gainsford, who had his R7 000 club stolen in the incident.

Clearly, he’s not happy:

An avid rugby supporter, Gainsford said the familiar face, who he believes nicked his stick, was a former Springbok, Western Province and Lions player…

Gainsford said he had arrived at the club at 12:00, ready to tee off at 12:50.

He placed his golf clubs in front of the cloakroom and went to sign in about 30 metres away. When he returned, he noticed his driver was missing.

“I thought it was a prank,” Gainsford, who has belonged to the club since 1998, said…

When he got to the tee, [friend Louis] Swanepoel mentioned that his putter was missing. Both thought they were being pranked and were suspicious of each other. But eventually they realised that their clubs had been stolen.

They nevertheless continued their game and reported the incident to the club, requesting an investigation.

Footage was retrieved, which showed a woman removing a club from a golf bag before quickly moving out of the camera’s view as the man followed behind her…

Gainsford said he established from a staff member that the couple had been seen walking around the club and that they claimed that they were “just looking around”.

Stellenbosch Golf Club general manager Chris van der Merwe confirmed that the two were not members of the club, but couldn’t say whether the rugby player had been there before.

Golf is a frustrating enough game without somebody stealing your clubs.

UPDATE: There’s been another development, which you can read about here.

Thanks, Shaun

[source:news24]