Ugandan golfers pick lessons after US golf qualifiers

Jul 23, 2018

Of the five, only Titus Okwong and Edrine Okong went past the first round, but they could not advance past the second.

There were more lessons to learn for five Ugandan golfers who made a shot at the U.S Amateur Golf qualifiers at Pebble Beach course, last week.

Of the five, only Titus Okwong and Edrine Okong went past the first round, but they could not advance past the second.

Okwong shot 76 and 78 while Okong carded 76 and 76 respectively over the two rounds, but that was all they could manage in the strong field of 130 golfers.

Joel Basalaine, Daniel Baguma and Ronald Otile could not make the cut after day one. Out of a field of 130, only 34 players qualified for the second round. And out of the 34, the best 5 players would then move on to qualify for the US Am Open in California.

The overall winner and runner up got a direct slot into the 2019 U.S Open (PGA).

"It all started well. I was hanging in there with level par, and it wasn't good enough for the first round, so I decided to be a little more aggressive to sink in some putts. And that how I ended up with 78, four back to back three putts that pushed me to +4 and a double on the last," Okwong stated.

"It was a tough experience, the kids are young (between16-19 years) but solid and shooting 63's;

so it was a good competition to help us step up our game," Okwong added.

Last year, Titus Okwong, Daniel Baguma and Ronald Otile played in their first U.S qualifier but came short of the qualifying mark in the one day event that attracted 78 players.

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