Arthur Choga

Last year, the Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund launched the LIV Golf Series, a highly lucrative tour, headed by Australian golf legend and two-time Major winner Greg Norman.

The inaugural season of the LIV Golf Series featured eight 54-hole no-cut stroke play tournaments and a final Team Championship that was set as a “seeded four-day, four-round match play knock-out” event at former US President Donald Trump’s National Doral Miami in October 2022.

In June 2022, it was reported that LIV Golf would evolve into a league format with a 14-event schedule and 48 contracted players in 2023.

On July 27, 2022, Norman announced that LIV Golf would implement a promotion and relegation system featuring a rankings list and a four-player relegation out of the 48 contracted players.

The league has a prize fund of US$405 million. Its events are scheduled to avoid competing with PGA Tour Majors and international team events.

Zimbabwe has an excellent golfing pedigree.

Nick Price was most famously a three-time Major winner between 1992 and 1994.

He wore a mantle that no golfer has managed to take up since then.

Zimbabwe has hundreds of golf courses.

Weekly, (mainly on Wednesdays, Fridays and weekends) people are out on the course.

It is often said good deals are struck on the golf course.

There are many who will testify that playing golf changed their health and their business prospects. Most business executives have a golf set among their prized possessions.

So, why is Zimbabwe not seen as a prime golfing nation?

The country has some elite courses.

The course at Leopard Rock in Vumba is recognised as one of the most picturesque.

Imagine a tourism-backed golf tour that would allow golfers to jet into the country, play a series of games in Victoria Falls, Nyanga, Binga, Kanyemba and Harare, then fly back to their homes!

A Harare property developer may have hit on a key part of the puzzle.

Warren Hills Golf Course sits in a quiet area on Kirkman Road near the National Sports Stadium and opposite the rapidly developing Liberation City. It will offer luxury accommodation, a top-notch golf course and access to key parts of the capital city and transport hubs.

That part of Harare will soon look vastly different from what it is today.

It could be an amazing opportunity to launch the Zimbabwean version of the Saudi golf event.

Clearly, it would not be funded to the same stratospheric level, but there are things the Saudis, with all their money, cannot buy — breath-taking views and an opportunity to play a game that is loved by those who play it in some of the most beautiful locations in the world.

The proposed Warren Hills Golf Course upgrade would see award-winning property company WestProp building a hotel and luxury apartments around the golf course, redesigning it into a world-class facility and upgrading the surrounding area.

It will also have indoor facilities for swimming, hockey, squash and tennis, among other sports.

The impact could be far-reaching.

Golfers take punctuality seriously, so a luxury course would entail upgrades to the roads to allow quicker transit.

Warren Hills is quite close to Charles Prince Airport as well, in case the golfers want to fly in, play a few rounds and move on.

For those who want to stay and play for a few days, the hotel and luxury apartments provide a perfect home from home.

This set-up also makes the facility ideal for tournaments.

The surrounding homeowners will also benefit from the enhanced value of their properties. Golf has always been regarded as an elite sport.

However, it does not have to be that way.

Golf, like almost any other sport, is a challenge of skill and the willingness and ability to outsmart the opponent and the course.

Watching young Zimbabweans play pool and other games that require a sharp understanding of angles, you get the sense that some of these young people could become top-notch golfers if given the chance.

Young people with a passion for the sport from Warren Park, Tynwald, Westlea, Meyrick Park and surrounding areas could be encouraged to play and learn the game as amateur players.

This could change lives.

The only reason we do not have many successful black players following the great Lewis Chitengwa and Nasho Kamungeremu is probably the lack of access and opportunity.

Creating top-notch facilities with clear-cut corporate social investment to drive and promote local interest, develop surrounding infrastructure and grow the national brand while attracting global patronage and high-end tourist traffic sounds like a hole in one.