Young golfers vie for honours at annual NCBA Juniors Open

The Lake Victoria Serena Golf Resort and Spa will be abuzz this Easter weekend as junior golfers fight it out in the NCBA Junior Golf Tournament, April 8-9.

Over 50 youngsters aged 6-18 years of different nationalities will compete over different yardages in different age categories.

The venue's director of golf, Theodor Van Rooyen, says the event will be played over 9 and 18 holes, with the boys’ under-6, 7, and 8-year-olds as well as the girls 8&under and 9–10-year-olds playing different yardages ranging from 1200 yards to 1950 for the different categories. The 18 holes for boys 9-18 years and girls 11–18 years old’s will be played over 3600-6900 yards. There are 9 and 5 age categories for boys and girls respectively.

Some of the juniors to look out for in the stroke play event include Arian Bholim Elena, Alexis Aurelia, Jordan Van-Rooyen, Shaka Kaariisa, Banza Matsiko and Dante Kawalya among others.

The Championship which is organised in partnership with Serena Golf Resort and US Kids Golf is played over the Easter weekend annually.

The event will also help the Ugandan national junior team gauge themselves ahead of the forthcoming All Africa Junior Golf Team Championship due at the same venue, April 15-21. Coach Flavia Namakula will use the event to select a final team of three girls and four boys that will represent the country.

The Uganda juniors will next month attempt to qualify for the Toyota World Cup for the second time when the country hosts the event for the first time.

The Uganda leg which has been sponsored to the tune of sh27m by NCBA is one of the 17 golf series sponsored tournaments in the region.

The tournament is linked to several golf series tournaments across the globe like the US Kids Golf. On Saturday after the official practice round, the children engaged in a chip and putting competition before they hoisted flags of the different nationalities that are going to take part in the two-day competition.