Nick Price On Native Zimbabwe: "It's been so depressing since the land-grabbing started"

Greg Norman wonders forlornly if he didn't get a third chance to lose the Presidents Cup because he walked away from a Rolex deal.

Nick Price wonders forlornly about his native Zimbabwe.

I think we've got an upgrade in the Presidents Cup captaincy!

On the eve of the "must win" matches (oy...it's not going away!), Barry Havenga profiles Price and his assistant captains Mark McNulty and Tony Johnstone, who all hail from the deteriorating country.

Accompanying this chaos has been the dismantling of one of the finest golf environments ever seen. In the 1960s and '70s, even amid political upheaval from minority rule that caused the United States to impose trade sanctions on Rhodesia, the country was a golf Camelot. Located along the northeast border of South Africa, it featured brilliant weather, a large number of courses with affordable fees and active junior programs that would, for a few golden years, produce a disproportionate number of the world's finest players.

Three-time major champion Price, now 56, as well as his assistant captains, Mark McNulty, 59, and Tony Johnstone, 57, were products of this time. So were Denis Watson and renowned instructor David Leadbetter. "The weather was so good that you were outdoors 365 days a year, so we played everything," recalls Price. "My brother [Tim] bought a bag of clubs, not a set, a bag, completely mixed clubs. People say there wasn't hickory around in 1965 -- there was in Rhodesia! We didn't have access to new equipment because of sanctions, so we made the most of everything we had."