President’s Cup hailed

THE just-ended NetOne President’s Cup has been hailed as a success.

It brought to an end a week of a congested golf programme that saw both amateurs and professionals take to the greens and engage in battles for supremacy.

Blessing Gandawa, the president of the Zimbabwe Golf Association, praised the hosting of the event and the lucrative sponsorship.

He described the many tournaments that were run as exciting. He said the scores posted in some instances were very good.

“I think it has been a very fantastic week of golf in Bulawayo. These have been exciting tournaments. Starting on Saturday and Sunday, we had the Matabeleland Amateur, which was won by Tariwo November. On Tuesday, we had the Matabeleland Junior Majors at Bulawayo Golf Club. We saw the junior players winning with seven under, which is quite a good score when we look at golf development,” said Gandawa.

David Amm, the winner of the professionals’ segment, is happy to have won the event. He believes he played some solid golf over the three days. He posted 13 under par to clinch the title.

“The tournament was great. I’m very happy with how I played. I played a very solid three days. Any time I go into a tournament, my goal is to give myself a good chance to win going into the final round, which I did a good job of. I was very tired in the final round. There were four guys tied for second behind me, so it was a very tight challenge and ultimately I’m very pleased to come out on top,” said Amm before Friday night’s prize-giving ceremony attended by the Minister of Sport, Anselem Sanyatwe.

Amm has now set his sights on the Zimbabwe Open, set to take place in Harare in a fortnight.

“It’s always nice to compete leading up to a big tournament so that you don’t have a long break off. It’s definitely a good build-up going into the Zimbabwe Open. It’s nice to play well and build some confidence. I’m very excited for the Zimbabwe Open in a few weeks,” said the lanky young golfer.

Amm lived up to it when he shot a five-under-par final round to clinch the US$5 600 first prize.

Going into the final day, Amm was tied on 136 with Darlington Chikanyambize and Michael Wallace.

Amm posted scores of 69 on the first day and 67 on the following two days as consistency and brilliant golfing won over in a field that had some of the best Zimbabwean golfers with a wealth of experience and exposure.

Some of the participants have played on the competitive Sunshine Tour, while others have done well on the West African Tours, adding points to their professional golfers’ campaigns and earning on the road.

He ended the tournament with a 13-under-par total of 203.

Second-day good performers Chikanyambize and Wallace were joined in second spot by local Order of Merit leader Robson Chinhoyi, who overcame a first-day disastrous performance to tally 204 and take home prize money of US$2 625. It is the same amount that Chikanyambize and Wallace pocketed.

Chikanyambize started with a score of 70 on Monday, improved on the second day with a six-under-par 66, before ending the tournament with a total of 204.

Wallace, on his part, had three-under-par on Monday, five-under on the second day, and four-under-par on the final day for his 204.

Chinhoyi survived a first-day poor show in which he had a positive score of plus one (73). He showed that he was back on the second day, playing a superb seven-under that had tournament co-ordinator Edgar Mashingaidze remarking that the leaders were now in danger.

“His come back leaves him very dangerous to the leaders,” said Mashingaidze.

Clive Nguru claimed fifth spot with scores of 67, 70, and 69 to pocket a cool US$1 400 for his fifth-place finish.

Yolanda Mubaiwa was the best-performing lady on the tour after tallying 71, 75, 70 for 216, and for her efforts she took home US$906. She was 14th overall.

Akil Yousuf, the president of the Zimbabwe Professional Golfers Association, was happy with the tournament.

“It far superseded my expectations in terms of the course. What we expected and what was presented to us was amazing. Fantastic course and fantastic sponsorship. We are happy that we are partnering again with NetOne and His Excellency. As a professional body and national association, we would like to align ourselves with His Excellency and corporate partners. We had a fantastic week of golf. 13-under-par was a phenomenal achievement,” said Yousuf.

He was happy to see young golfers dominate the top five positions and believes the future is bright for the country’s golf.

He said they are all systems go for the Zimbabwe Open.