Zimbabwe’s amateur golf team got off to a solid start after finishing the opening day of the Africa Zone VI Golf Championship in Malawi joint second with Uganda on five points on Tuesday.
The Emmanuel Hungwe-captained team set Lilongwe Golf Club on fire with big plays that helped Zimbabwe rake up five points from a possible eight while defending champions South Africa, who collected all eight points, are within touching distance of victory.
Kenya, Namibia and Tanzania are on four-and-a-half points while hosts Malawi and Zambia share seventh position on three points with Mozambique and Mauritius in ninth and tenth position respectively.
The decisive play of the day came from Zimbabwe’s Brett Krog, who beat Ugandan Ronald Rugumayo in the decisive match of the day. The team will be looking to maintain the momentum in the foursomes and fourball betterball rounds today before wrapping up with the singles round tomorrow.
Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Namibia, Mauritius, Uganda and South Africa are taking part in the four-day event which was officially opened on Monday.
Other players in the Zimbabwe team include Mike Madhodha, Brett Krog, Biggie Chibvuri, Barry Painting, Ben Follet-Smith, Tichaona Masunga, Brett Gordard, and Chris Manning. Initially foreign 14 countries had confirmed their participation, but Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Madagascar pulled out following a change of dates by the organisers from April 17-24.
The change was made following the death of Malawian president Bingu wa Mutharika, who died from a heart attack on April 5 and the government’s declaration of a 10-day mourning period. According to reports from Malawi, although the mourning period was later extended to 30 days, the organisers stuck to the opening-day April 24 date to avoid further delays.
