Chronicle Editor
Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
STAGING a successful All-Africa Golf tournament later this year tops the priorities of newly elected Zimbabwe Golf Association (ZGA) president Mufaro Chivonivoni.
Zimbabwe will play host to the prestigious continental amateur golf championship in Victoria Falls in October.
Chivonivoni, who is also the Matabeleland Golf Association president, was elected unopposed at the ZGA congress held in Harare on Friday last week. He took over from Mafingei Nyamwanza.
“Our immediate challenge is to plan and host a successful All-Africa Golf tournament in October. To date, we have 11 countries that have confirmed participation in the continental competition and we expect the number to rise. I believe we’ve got a great team that can deliver and stage a wonderful tournament,” said Chivonivoni.
Among the countries coming for the continental golf championship are Nigeria, Botswana, Mauritius, South Africa and Zambia.
Chivonivoni said Bulawayo would next month play host to the Zimbabwe Amateur Open.
“The Zimbabwe Amateur Open will be used as a selection competition for the team that will represent us at the All-Africa Golf tournament. This will be the second last selection event, with the final one coming in late August,” Chivonivoni said.
Besides staging of the continental competition, Chivonivoni and his ZGA executive, which comprises his deputy Martin Chikwana of Mutare and secretary-general Lazarus Celver from Harare alongside treasurer Lazarus Matoshaya, have set a target of spreading golf to the grassroots during their two-year term.
“We want to take the game to areas not exposed to golf. Our aim is to have more schools and tertiary institutions so that we increase the number of golfers.
In Bulawayo there are some government schools that are now playing golf and we want that to spread across the country. We’re going to send our members around the country to do demonstrations at grassroots levels,” said Chivonivoni. — @ZililoR
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