Museveni tees off Zone V1 Africa golf championship

Apr 15, 2015

As President Yoweri Museveni tees off the 20th edition of the Zone V1 Africa golf championship today, defending champions South Africa will be mindful not to let their guard down.

By Michael Nsubuga

As President Yoweri Museveni tees off the 20th edition of the Zone V1 Africa golf championship today, defending champions South Africa will be mindful not to let their guard down.

Museveni will officiate at his first ever golf event alongside officials from the Royal and Ancient Club of Scotland, the Africa Golf Union and the Uganda Golf Union led by president Kiryowa Kiwanuka.

This will be after the official practice round at the flag raising ceremony ahead of the singles round tomorrow.

The Zone 6 Golf Championships is played under the match play format with players playing two singles matches, one better-ball and one foursomes rounds over three days.

Just because they have dominated for most of the years, the South African team knows the Ugandan edition will be even tougher going by what last year’s tournament offered.

“It is tough to compete at this level and remain unbeaten, but our team did an outstanding job to collect 23 out of a possible 24 points,” South African Golf Association former president Andre Pieterse said after last year’s tournament.

“A lot of games were a lot closer than the results indicate and this signifies just how much the standard of this competition has improved in the last few years,”

Having lost the title in 2010, in Botswana to Kenya, the 19-time champions will quickly be reminded that a good record is no guarantee to winning again.

Last year, South Africa successfully defended the African title on home soil at the tournament held at the Devon vale Golf and Wine Estate in Cape Town.

It was a replica of the previous year’s (2013) when they again won after losing just one point over two rounds of singles, a round of foursomes and a round of four balls at Windhoek Country Club in Namibia.

Ten battle for honours


Last year Uganda won only two games out of eight in the singles round, a statistic they must quickly fi x in the opening round tomorrow.

Golfers from Uganda, South Africa, Kenya, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe will compete in the championship.

New Vision, The Royal and Ancient Golf Club (R & A) of St Andrews in Scotland, Sheraton Hotel Kampala NTV, Uganda Tourism Board, AAR and Uganda Breweries are sponsors of the tournament.

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