FOUR Zimbabwean golfers — Tongo Charamba, Michael Hough, Greg Bentley and Ignatius Mketekete — will be required to pre-qualify for the Lombard Insurance Classic Swaziland Golf Open tournament which tees off this morning.
REPORT BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
According to the list of entries for the tournament to be played at the Royal Swazi Sun Country Club, the four local pros will be up against 60 fellow qualifiers in the race for a top 10 finish that should clinch a place in the tournament proper.
Two-time Sunshine Tour winner Charamba has very good memories of the Lombard Insurance Classic.
Charamba was involved in a sudden-death playoff in 2010 with Grant Muller that went to a third hole before Muller prevailed.
Zimbabwe’s top player on the Sunshine Tour, Ryan Cairns, will not need to qualify for the tournament because of his exemption status and so will recently-crowned Zambia Open champion Adilson Da Silva of Brazil and 2012 champion Justin Harding, among others.
The Lombard Insurance Classic Swaziland Golf Open proper, which has been played annually since 2007, will run from tomorrow to Sunday and will be the second tournament to be played in Swaziland after last month’s Investec Royal Swazi Open.
The tournament retains its R900, 000 prize money, attracting the biggest names on the Sunshine Tour including the reigning Golden Pilsener Zimbabwe Open champion Jake Roos, who is the defending champion.
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Unlike the Investec Royal Swazi Open which was played under a modified stableford scoring system, the Lombard Insurance Classic uses regular strokeplay scoring and plays three rounds instead of four.
