Chronicle Editor
Tobias Mandoreba in Hwange
LOCAL professional golfers said standards displayed at the 2017 Hwange Open proved that the coal mining town deserves to host larger golf tournaments.
Zimbabwe Professional Golfers Association (ZPGA) president Gary Thompson said his members would use their influence to ensure bigger and lucrative tournaments are held in Hwange.
“For starters, the course is now vastly improved and I would like to pay tribute to the (Hwange Golf) Club president Thomas Makore and his committee headed by Ray Munangwa (chairman) and Morgan Gorerino (club captain) for the fantastic work to ensure the course is playable and maintaining high golf standards and impressive sponsorship.
“Next year we would like to have a bi-nation golf tournament involving our Zambian counterparts, which should serve as a precursor to the 2018 Hwange Open. Other lucrative and big tournaments also need to be lined up,” he said.
Thompson, who won the 2015 Hwange Open, also expressed his admiration for this year’s winner Robson Chinoi from Hillside Golf Club in Mutare.
“Robson made some extraordinary piece of history on this course due to the margin of his victory and if you can go back into the years for such amazing statistics, you would see that Robson is a golfing sensation who needs to compete beyond our borders,” said Thompson.
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