Top Zimbabwean female golfer Claire Minter recovered from a dismal opening round to finish in third place at the 58th edition of the Uganda Ladies’ Open in Kampala over the weekend.
Minter carded a composed final round of four-over-par 76 for an aggregate of 220, seven shots off the pace from the eventual winner Flavia Namakula from Uganda at the 54-hole tournament played at the par 72 Kitante Golf Course.
Zimbabwe’s second-ranked female golfer Loice Chingono also did well to finish eighth with the major highlight of her performance being a five over par 77 in the second round.
Namakula, who fired a three-day aggregate of 223, beat Tanzanian Madina Iddi by five strokes to claim her second consecutive Uganda Open title.
“Madina and Claire Minter are great golfers. I enjoyed the level of competition that they brought to Uganda,” Namakula remarked shortly after hugging Iddi and Minter amidst cheers from spectators at the clubhouse.
Namakula’s five-shot lead on the opening day made the difference in the highly competitive tournament which attracted competitors from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Uganda.
Minter had gone into the tournament with high hopes, but according to reports from Uganda she struggled during her opening round on a wet course with an eight over par 80 opening round before rallying back with a two over par 74 in the second round which brought her back into contention.
Earlier this year in June Minter consolidated her status as the country’s leading female golfer when she became the first Zimbabwean lady golfer to compete with male professional golfers when she took part in the Econet Joshua Nkomo Golf Classic at Royal Harare Golf Club.
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This has been a successful season for Minter, who in June scooped the 2011 Zambia Ladies golf Open stroke championships to add to the Zimbabwe Ladies Golf Union Open Strokeplay Championship.
Final Leaderboard Flavia Namakula (UGA) 74 74 75 223 Iddi Madina (TAN) 79 74 75 228 Claire Minter (ZIM) 80 74 76 230 Hawa Wanyeche (TAN) 84 83 74 241 Sophia Reiffenstein (TAN) 83 80 80 243 Eva Magala (UGA) 85 78 82 245 Monica Ntege (UGA) 85 84 78 247 Loice Chingono (ZIM) 87 77 83 247 Jasper Kamukama (UGA) 82 85 80 251 Irene Nakalembe (UGA) 88 88 84 260
