2012 defining year for Zim golf

McNulty, Dennis Watson and Tony Johnstone.
De Jonge had some decent outings in several events and managed to raise the country’s flag high throughout the season with his best performance since turning professional in 2003.

He was runner-up at the Justin Timbelake Shriners for Children Open after having gone for four straight top 10 finishes.

Ryan Cairns was not to be outdone as he managed to win his first Sunshine Tour event when he begged the Vodacom Origins of Golf title.

Cairns managed to win after a playoff, having finished tied on 15-under-par, with Vaughn Groenewald.

The golfer was also the most impressive, of the locals, on the Sunshine Tour.
Locally Cairns also managed to do well on the Zambezi Tour as he won the Lowveld Pro-Am.
The local circuit was, however, dominated by Brian Gondo who won two tournaments.

The local events drew some foreign players because of the attractive purses.
The local tour, however, lost one of its members — Vengesai “V6” Phiri who died in November.
Phiri was 42 at the time of his death.

Mashwede Diesel Open for professionals and top amateurs at Falcon was the first Zambezi Tour event and Tongo Charamba emerged the winner.

The event was held a few weeks before the Zimbabwe Open and gave locals a platform to practice their game ahead of the big one.

Several professionals featured in the Zimbabwe Open, including United States-based Zimbabwean golfer, Bruce McDonald, but the South Africans proved too strong for the local contingent.
Arkil Yousuf, who was the Zimbabwe Professional Golfers Association president, threw in the towel in a season rocked by a lot of resignations.

Tongo Charamba replaced the Country Club based professional.
Yousuf was forced out despite him succumbing to pressure that comes with the post.
The Zimbabwe Ladies Golf Association started the year on a promising note with the women inter-provincials in Gweru, which was won by Harare Province.

The association had a new executive that saw Marita Kahwema coming in as the president and they went on to host the Matabeleland strokeplay.

A number of tournaments were postponed as the new leaders settled down.
They, however, managed to host the A and B Challenge Trophy.

Zimbabwe beat Zambia and Botswana to win the event that saw them being short-listed for Team of the Year award at the Annual Sports Awards hosted by the Sports Commission.

Claire Minter, the top woman golfer in the country, brewed a shocker when she announced her retirement from the game.

Minter, who successfully defended her Zimbabwe Ladies Golf Open, cited pressing commitments as she waved goodbye to the sport.

Martin Rateiwa, who was the Zimbabwe Golf Association president, quit his post.
He was replaced by Eiden Mhere.
Joe Sithole, the hard-working secretary-general, also left the association.

The association went down and could not manage to appoint other executive members with Boniface Chigorimbo spending better part of the year as the acting secretary.

Th amateurs managed to stage all the tournaments on the calendar and it was Scott Vincent, Ray Badenhoist and Barry Painting who went on to represent the country in the Eisenhower Trophy in Turkey.

Ben Follet-Smith, who was on national duty with the junior team, was outstanding throughout the year.