Davison Elijah finishes in 15th place in Mangais Senior Classic

ZIMBABWE seasoned professional golfer, Davison Elijah could not get a top 10 leaderboard position in the 2023 Mangais Senior Classic golf tournament that was held at Mangais Golf Resort in Luanda, Angola at the weekend.

The tournament was part of the Sunshine Senior Tour and Elijah, who has been active in the championships finished in a two-way tie for position 15 despite having had a good start to the championship.

Elijah, a member of Chapman Golf Club in Harare, who has seen it all in local golf, having won several tournaments, including the Hwange Open and Mashwede Open, finished with a gross total of three over-219.

He was tied with South Africa’s Buhrmann Hendrik. The championship ended on Monday, having begun on Saturday.

Doug McGuigan from Scotland was crowned the champion after an impressive 10-under-par-206 score.

In a three-round championship, Elijah got off his campaign to an impressive start, shooting a birdie for a round score of 71. After the completion of the first round, Elijah finished in position seven on the leaderboard, but fell off in the final two rounds.

On Sunday during the second round, Elijah shot two bogeys for a round score of 74. In the front nine, the Zimbabwean dropped one bogey in the third hole before going on to drop two more in the back nine. He dropped the two bogeys in the 10th and 17th hole, however managed to shoot a birdie on the 14th.

After an impressive start on Monday in the first two holes where he shot two birdies, Elijah, went on to finish with a round score of 74, shooting two over. After the two birdies, he also made two bogeys during the front nine, in the sixth and ninth hole. In the back nine, Elijah fell off with a double bogey in the 12th hole, but managed to level par in other holes to round up his tournament and settle for position 15.

The tournament was played in accordance with the rules and regulations as set out by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A) in a 54-hole stroke play event for professionals, who are 50 years of age or older, with 18 holes being played on each of the days. The R&A is the world governing body for golf outside of the Americas and their role includes coming up with rules which govern the game. – @brandon_malvin