adminTakudzwa Chitsiga Sports Reporter
Zimbabwe Junior golf team representatives at the ongoing Toyota World Junior Golf Masters found the going tough from the beginning as they struggled in the first round of the event, which has attracted several countries. Stuart Krog, Kieran Vincent, Mbongeni Maphosa and Justian Kestern are representing Zimbabwe at the tournament, which is taking place at the Chukyo Golf Club Ishino Course, Yoshitomo-cho, Fukada Japan.
At the end of the first round, the Zimbabweans found themselves rock bottom of the standings for the 15 countries that are taking part. The Zimbabwe team had their best three rounds totalling 11-over-par 224 with individual scores of 71, 76 and 77 to trail South American side Chile who were the pacesetters by 20 strokes.
United States and Venezuela were a stroke behind the leaders after the first round with seasoned African representative South Africa sitting on fifth place where they are tied with Mexico on five-under-par overall.
According to the event’s website www.wjgtc.org there is more to it for the boys at the Toyota tournament.
“This tournament is meant to encourage the players’ patriotic spirit during the competition, while providing them with the opportunity to develop international friendship among the themselves. In addition to international competition and friendship, the tournament tries to work towards developing the junior golf players for future golf world globally by hosting a meeting where captains and coaches share the latest information on their national junior golf programmes with other participating countries,” read the website.
Standings after day 1
1. Chile 68-65-71 = 204 (-9)
T2. United States 65-71-69 = 205 (-8)
T2. Venezuela 73-68-64 = 205 (-8)
4. Japan 70-67-70 = 207 (-6)
T5. Mexico 70-67-71 = 208 (-5)
T5. South Africa 67-72-69 = 208 (-5)
7. Italy 66-72-71 = 209 (-4)
8. Australia 72-68-70 = 210 (-3)
T9. Canada 72-68-71 = 211 (-2)
T9. France 73-67-71 = 211 (-2)
T11. Norway 73-69-71 = 213 (E)
T11. Thailand 75-67-71 = 213 (E)
13. Korea 74-69-72 = 215 (+2)
14. Argentina 73-73-72 = 218 (+5)
15. Zimbabwe 71-76-77 = 224 (+11)
Online Reporter