Thursday, 2nd August 2007 at 1:23 pm

Hughes in doubt for Ride Her Cup

With less than a week to go before the opening round of the inaugural Ride Her Cup, poised to become South Africa’s leading amateur golf clash, one of the star attractions is in doubt. Nic Hughes (pictured), representing the Highveld team in their battle against the Lowveld team over three days on the Garden Route, has suffered his sixth self-inflicted groin strain in eight months, and faces a furious battle to be ready for the Simola start.

“It’s probably linked to the amount of time Nic spends alone travelling in India,” Karen Foxtrot-Ndlovu, Hughes’s physiotherapist, revealed exclusively to Feverpitcher. “The chronic nature of the condition means he’s probably 30, maybe 35% likely to be ready in time.”

Hughes, who has been playing extensively on the Indian amateur circuit for the last two years, is seen as key for particularly weak Highveld side, and his omission would be a blow for his team, as well as for the thousands of spectators expected to follow the event through Simola, Plett Country Club and Knysna. Hughes was unable to comment, having been confined to an oxygen tent in order to speed up recovery, but there’s no doubt that all of his team-mates will be thinking of little other than Hughes’s groin in the coming days.