Zimbabwe jumps to second at AAGTC

ZIMBABWE has jumped two places up on the 2024 All-Africa Golf Team Championships (AAGTC) leaderboard after a solid performance on the second round at Bulawayo Golf Club yesterday.

The hosts, Zimbabwe, went into the second round sitting in fourth place but managed to jump to second place, behind South Africa.

Following the completion of round two, Zimbabwe has a team total of one-over-par-433 and are 15 strokes behind leader South Africa on 14-under-par-418. In yesterday’s round, Zimbabwe carded a combined team total of 213, four strokes behind South Africa who shot 209.

Uganda and Zambia are tied for third place with identical scores of five-over-par-437.
Egypt and Mauritius are tied for fifth position on 10-over-par-442 while Kenya are in position seven with a score of 17-over-par-449, one stroke ahead of Malawi in eighth place.

Neighbours Botswana and Gabon are tied for ninth place with identical scores of 35-over-par-467.
Anchoring the team leaderboard is Eswatini with a score of 38-over-par-470.
On the individual leaderboard, it was a good day for Zimbabwe with the captain Michael Wallace, and Keegan Shutt carding under-par scores.

Wallace had a good outing on the green in round two, shooting an impressive three-under-par-69, which took him to an overall of one-under-par-143 having shot two-over-par-74 in round one.
Wallace birdied the par-four first hole, par-three second hole, and the par-five fifth hole. He bogeyed the par-four eighth hole in the front nine.

In the back nine, he birdied the par-four 10th hole, par-five 14th hole and the par-five 18th hole. He double-bogeyed the par-four 17th hole.
He is tied for seventh place with Joseph Cwinyaai of Uganda.
Shutt also shot three-under-par-69, which took him to an overall of one-over-par-145 having carded four-over-par-76 in the first round.

In the front nine, he birdied the first and second holes (par-four), the fifth hole (par-five) and the seventh (par-three). He bogeyed the par-three third hole and the par-five fourth hole.
In the back nine, he shot two birdies on the par-five 14th and 18th holes while bogeying the par-four 17th hole.
Shutt is tied for ninth with JP Van Der Watt.

Vincent Chidambazina, who was the only Zimbabwean to shoot an under-par score in the first round carded four-over-par-76 in the second round. He is now on an overall two-over-par-146 having shot two-under-par-70 in the first round.
In the front nine, he birdied the first and fourth holes. He had bogeys on the third (par-three), sixth (par-four), seventh (par-four) and eighth (par-four) holes.

In the back nine, Chidambazina bogeyed the par-four 13th and par-three 15th holes. He is tied for 11th place with Ludovic Bax de Keating (Mauritius) and Hassan Ahmed Hassan Said (Egypt).
Completing the Zimbabwean contingent on the tournament is Kelvin Muchenje who has a score of eight-over-par-152 after carding three-over-par-75 yesterday. In the first round, Muchenje shot five-over-par-77.

In the front nine, he had three bogeys, on the first, fifth and seventh holes. He managed to birdie the third hole.
In the back nine, he started well with a birdie on the 10th and 11th holes before going on to double bogey the 12th hole. He had a bogey on the 17th hole.

Zimbabwe coach, Simon Murungweni, was pleased with the fight shown by his players in the second round.
“We are slowly getting into the tournament. We started not the way we wanted to but the guys saw the mistakes they were making on the course and today they managed to improve and we have moved a few steps up. We will see how it goes; I think day three will be interesting,” said Murungweni.

South Africa’s Ivan Vester is leading the individual leaderboard with a score of seven-under-par-137.
The 2024 AAGTC is the second edition of the premier continental championship to be hosted by Zimbabwe after the 2017 edition was held at Elephant Hills Golf Course in Harare.

The biennial event features the crème dela crème of African golf.
This year’s event features 11 countries and a new champion will be crowned, after the defending champions Morocco couldn’t make it.

Morocco won the 2022 event that was held in Egypt, dethroning perennial winners, South Africa.
The significance of the AAGTC parallels that of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in football and the Rugby Africa Cup, as it fosters unity, competitive spirit] and pride, among African nations.

Zimbabwe’s players are scheduled to tee off, for the third round this morning, at 9.22am (Muchenje), 9.32am (Chidambazina), 9.42am (Shutt), and 9.52am (Wallace).
— @brandon_malvin