Westner a 'lekker oke'

Wayne Westner was "a lekker oke" who was well-liked in the seaside town of Pennington, on the South Coast.

So when the news broke that he had "forced his way" into his own home on the Gwala Gwala Estate, on Rahle Road, and shot himself in front of his wife, the community was left reeling.

The 55-year-old former professional golfer died from a gunshot wound to the right side of his head.

"What a lekker oke," said a fellow golfer at the Lynton Golf Academy, in Pennington, who asked to be referred to only by his first name, Neil.

Neil played many a round of golf with Westner over the past three years, saying he could not have met a "nicer person".

"This place will never be the same. Every day he would be here in the sun, spending the whole day on the range, teaching golf to people from as far afield as England and Ireland," said Neil.

Westner, who lived and taught golf in Ireland for almost a decade, is best-known for his 1996 World Cup of Golf win, in which he teamed up with Ernie Els. He also won the SA Open twice, and 12 other events across the globe during his five-year career. Westner retired in 1998 because of an injury.

"He was like a resident professional, a-go-to guy when you needed anything to do with golf. He did some coaching and played a lot. He was famous here as the guy who invented his own swinging machine. He lived golf," Neil said.

Neil said Westner arrived in Pennington three years or so ago with his wife, who ran a beauty salon.

He quickly set up the Lynton Golf Academy and marketed his Instant Golfer, a training machine that improves players' swings.

Tilly, who manages the local coffee shop, said the community had been shattered by Westner's death.

"He didn't have a big heart - he had an extra large heart," she said.

"He was a deep thinker.

The staff all around here knew him and he interacted well and respectfully with everyone," said Tilly.