Uganda junior golf team eyes strong start at All Africa Championship

Uganda’s junior golfers are set to compete in the 2026 All Africa Junior Team Championship (AAJTC), which begins today at the Windsor Golf Hotel & Country Club in Nairobi. 

Led by captain Peter Mayende, the team aims to improve on last year’s fifth-place finish out of 12 countries in Tunisia.

The girls’ team finished eighth out of nine. More than 100 top junior golfers under 18 from 14 African nations will participate in this Africa Golf Confederation (AGC) event, which also serves as a qualifier for the Toyota Junior Golf World Cup in Japan. 

Uganda’s boys’ team includes John Paul Rugumambaju, Anthony Otukei, Shaka Kariisa Ndyabahika, and Peter Mayende. The girls’ team features Keisha Wiltshire Kagoro, Rachael Laura Natukunda, and Elizabeth Danelle Kawalya, all of whom represented Uganda last year.

The 54-hole stroke-play tournament will see Uganda compete against teams from across the continent. Each team’s best three and two scores per round will count for both the boys and girls, respectively, and the lowest cumulative scores after three days will determine the winners. The top teams in each gender will qualify to represent Africa at the Toyota Junior World Cup in Nagoya, Japan, in September. 

Uganda and the other countries will have to contend with expected rain conditions, as per the weather forecast, at the 7100-yard Windsor Golf & Country Club, which demands precision and accuracy.

The event has attracted players from Kenya, Zambia, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Ghana. Other countries fielding teams are Botswana, Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritius, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and South Africa. Flavia Namakula is the team coach, while Paul Habyarimana is the team manager. 

The Ugandan team will be joined by Union President Jackson Were, who will also be holding strategic meetings with the R&A and the Africa Golf Confederation. Team Uganda has been supported by NCS, Uganda Golf Union, R&A, and Kenya Airways, the official travel partner.