Ugandan amateur golfers eager to play in the MKO Pro-Am that tees off today

Uganda amateur golfers that excelled during last year’s Tusker Malt Lager Uganda Open Pro-Am tournament sponsored by Absa cannot wait to experience the Muthaiga course today.

Like is tradition, Absa sponsors the top five amateurs and five professionals to the Magical Kenya Open to have a feel of playing alongside established professionals from around the world.

The nine amateurs and Uganda’s professional golfer and sole representative Ronald Rugumayo will play in Wednesday’s Pro-Am as Rugumayo also polishes his game ahead of the pro’s first round on Thursday.

The amateurs were officially flagged off for the event in Kampala on Tuesday by Absa Bank’s Executive Director David Wandera, and all were looking forward to the event with a lot of excitement.

Harry Hakiza a member of Entebbe Club said he was glad to have this opportunity to be part of this event as a participant, from which he expects to pick several tips from the professionals. “This is a DP Tour event and the biggest in East and Central Africa and I would like to thank Absa for having given us the opportunity. We are looking forward to interacting, the experience with professional golfers giving us some tips and I hope we can improve our game after that,” Hakiza said.

“It’s going to be my first time to have an opportunity to play at this event; I intend to pick some tips from the professionals, and see how they manipulate and manage the game so that I can also improve my game; that’s the experience of having these professional golfers,”

He said after their round they intend to offer support to Rugumayo as he strives to become the first Ugandan to make the cut at the lucrative, annual event.

Another golfer Raymond Ekwamu said he had already done a lot of research on the Muthaiga course and that he cannot wait to swing his clubs.

“I’m excited to go for the Magical Kenya Open, it is going to be a first experience for me and I hope to learn a lot from the professionals who we are going to play with; I’m excited. It seems like an exquisite course, and I can’t wait to play on it,” Ekwamu stated.

Herbert Kamuntu said he was lucky to have been chosen and thanked Absa for offering the opportunity.

“I’m lucky to have been chosen since my golf at Serena wasn’t the best. I’ve only been seeing these things on TV so going there, you don’t know how excited I am; I going there for the experience, walk around with the pros, pick one or two tips,” Kamuntu noted.

Wandera noted that their sponsorship is intended to give the golfers an experience of a lifetime by helping them to experience how golf is played on the world stage and learn new things.

“I’m glad that we can do this (bring possibilities to life). Part of Our vision is to change the communities that we operate in, be a force for good,”

“We, want to open their horizons, to see what possibilities there are outside there as long as we can continue to support positively to influence the community around us, constantly and positively influence sport around us, we will be proud to do that and we exist because of our customers, so we want to continue to see which ways we can continue to support through golf,” Wandera stated.

“Last year was quite an interesting experience I’m looking forward to seeing which other relationships I can build this year. I look forward to meeting people, making connections, and building networks,” Wandera remarked.

The nine amateurs include Andrew Arinaitwe, Harry Hakiza, Allan Mugisha, Raymond Ekwamu.

Edrine Wasike, Wu Wei Ling, Aloysius Bingi, Herbertn Kamuntu and Berna Musanabera.