Proud moment for Zimbabwe golf

06 Oct, 2017 - 00:10 0 Views

eBusiness Weekly

Mugove Chigada
All Africa Golf Championships could be a career moment for David Amm and company. The time is here for the Zimbabwe team of top amateurs. It could be more competitive, but that won’t take away South Africa’s superiority. And the hosts are aware they will need to move mountains to dethrone their southern neighbours.

“I’ve got to work hard, I look forward to a lot of goals to achieve to make it past South Africa, the defending champions, but I think that would really be a career moment for me if we could pull this,” a member of the team Tonderai Masunga says.

The championships will run from 8-14 October, with the teams made up of four players, a coach and a manager. Amm, the top player in the Zimbabwean team according to the order of merit, will lead Rasheed Mohamed, Tatenda Makunde and Masunga. Zimbabwe came third behind South Africa and the hosts Kenya in the last edition.

A lot of hard work has been put into this for the hosts to impose themselves. Initially, the plan was to ensure they camp longer and acclimatise longer, but Masunga believes the past weeks working with the coach has been superb.

“We have been practicing for the past three weeks. We’re really looking forward to the World Amateur Championships later on and we are going to use the home ground to our own advantage,” he says. Masunga is optimistic they can better that.

“The guys are just good. We all trust each other, we all believe in each other’s abilities and we all want to be here. We all want to win.” Countries that will be participating at this year’s edition include Botswana, Morocco, Swaziland, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia, Tunisia, Mauritius, Tanzania, Seychelles, Reunion Islands, Ghana, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, Angola and Mali.

The number could have been bigger had some countries not pulled out. Meanwhile, the NAC HIV and Cancer Prevention Drive Pro-Am golf tournament has been an interesting addition to the Zimbabwe golf calendar. The tournament started on October 3 and attracted some of the top local and regional golfers.

Stephen Ferreira, the defending champion, had done well in Uganda the previous week and was expected to be a real force at Royal Harare Golf club.

To think that this is only the second edition, makes the future outlook interesting. The tournament, with a prize fund of US$35 000, was aimed at raising “financial and material resources to purchase 15 sets of mobile cancer testing equipment for rural health centres across the country”. Going into the tournament, Ferreira who recently won the Ugandan Open “had improved his short game and changed his putter which had had cost him on tour”.

Trynos Muradzikwa who was the best local player in the Zimbabwe Open was another player on course he left a mark in the local golfing scene this year. Dark horse Tongo Charamba was another force after coming an impressive 11 in the Ugandan Open recently. And from the regional players, Mudalistho Muthiya, was one to watch.

The Zambian, one of the most successful golfers in his country, took up golf at the age of nine and at fifteen he caught the attention of the president, then. He received proper assistance from then on as he climbed up the ladder to be a force to reckon with.

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