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THE year 2013 had a lot of highs and lows in golf with the Zambezi Tour recording low tournaments, the Zimbabwe Ladies Golf Union getting a new executive, Zimbabwe Golf Association getting partners and the individuals breaking records. Zimbabwe’s leading golf player Brendon de Jonge recorded his best year after qualifying for next year’s all four major championships namely the Masters, US Open, PGA Championships and Open Championships.
De Jonge also took part in a European Tour event and finished fifth at the Nedbank Golf Challenge.
The player also made it into the President Cup and took part in the World Cup golf which was a great achievement as Nicky Price, Marc McNulghty and Tony Jonhson had managed to reach the same feat.
De Jonge started the year on a good not and at the end he made $1,792,244 in earnings with four top ten finishes 13 top 20 missing the cut five times out of 30 attempts and is now ranked 58 in the World.
Sunshine Tour players who also finished as the best local at the Zimbabwe Open held in April Ryan Cairns had a good outing in the regional and local tours.
Cairns who had since set his sights on returning to the Canadian Tour where he used to play managed to win his first ever Sunshine Tour title.
The Royal Harare based professional managed some decent outings in the Sunshine Tour which saw him finish in decent places.
Chapman Golf Club-bred amateur Scott Vincent in August won the Harare Amateur Championship by a record 17 shots when he had returned for a break from his United States base.
Vincent is currently on a golf scholarship at Virginia Tech University in the USA, the same institution that De Jonge attended.
After his return to Virgina Tech the former St Georges student broke countrymen De Jonge’s records on the US Collegiate circuit and he remains the best rated amateur in the continent according the world rankings where he is on position 19.
Teenage golfer Sean Crocker was the highest placed armature at the Golden Pilsener Zimbabwe Open in April to assert himself as one for the future and has earned himself a golf scholarship at the University of Southern California.
Junior golfers had a good season as well with Stuart Krog and Travis Smith attending the Orange Bowl after they were the best placed juniors on the order of merit.
It was at Zimbabwe Ladies Golf Union where a lot was happening the year started with the resignation of former president Marita Kahwema after serving half her term of office.
The resignation of Kahwema saw Nancy Dube taking over on an acting capacity and some annual meeting was held which she become the president.
The new executive may prove to be one of the worst with no open forum approach to the media.
Zimbabwe Golf Association managed to draw several partners who they will be working with the coming season after they incorporated University of Zimbabwe and Windhoek Lager.
Online Reporter