Poor golf scores cause for concern

AS the country’s amateur golf season officially got underway at Bulawayo Golf Club at the weekend with the Dugmore tournament, the scores were poor.

This prompted a call for players to improve their scores to keep up with the rest of the golfers worldwide.

From the Dugmore tournament, only one golfer, Tanaka Chatora managed to shoot an under-par score as he went on to be crowned champion and Matabeleland Golf Union president, Vincent Makamure believes something must be done to address the poor scores that were seen during the season opener.

Speaking to ‘Zimpapers Sports Hub’ after the tournament, Makamure said if the trend of poor scores continues, they will engage the Zimbabwe Golf Association (ZGA) to make sure that they assist the players so that they are technically prepared, to also bolster their World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) points.

“I have to be honest, the scores were not as good as we hoped they would be. It’s an issue that we noticed and we are hoping to discuss it with ZGA and the technical team to look into what could be the reason, it could be a one off, this is the beginning of the year, people might not have been playing golf since Christmas but we want to make sure that we observe with the other tournaments being played throughout the country and see if the trend continues.

“From a World Golf Ranking perspective, having one player out of 40 shooting under par is not an acceptable outcome so we want to ensure that the players are technically prepared to achieve a desired result,” said Makamure.

ZGA president Martin Chikwana also concurred with Makamure that the scores witnessed in the tournament need to improve. He was, however, pleased with the fact that the winner, Chatora, managed to shoot an under-par score. He added that under-par scores win tournaments.

“I’m mostly impressed with the fact that the winner this year has been able to shoot a two-under-par score which is what is expected at this level of amateur golf. These are our top young guys and we are always looking forward to them shooting very good scores. It’s not good for us to have youngsters shooting over-par scores because when you go out there in the international arena; tournaments are won by under-par scores. I know it’s hard, I know it’s difficult but we still expect the youngsters to be able to come back with good scores,” said Chikwana.

In the Dugmore tournament, Chatora, from Royal Harare shot a two-under-par 214 gross. He had round scores of 69, 72 and 73 and was eight shots ahead of second-placed Keagan Shutt from Royal Harare who finished on six-over-par 222 following round scores of 75, 74 and 73 in his three rounds. In third place, Kelvin Muchenje from ZRP finished in third place with a score of eight-over-par 224 with round scores of 71, 79 and 74.

Yolanda Mubaiwa also from Royal Harare won the ladies’ category of the Dugmore tournament after shooting 13-over-229 to kick-start the country’s golfing season. She had round scores of 75, 77 and 77 while second-placed Kudzai Mandava, also from Royal Harare finished with 22-over-par 238 gross following her three-round scores of 81, 81 and 76. The other female golfer who participated was Rosebud Musakasa from Royal Harare as well and she finished on 67-over-par-253 with round scores of 97, 89 and 97. – @brandon_malvin