The Malawi Golf team has finished 4th in the Regional 5 Amateur Golf Challenge held at Lilongwe Golf Club, while South Africa (S.A) emerged champions after amassing a gross score of 691 in four rounds.
The competition run from 16 to 20th May with golfers participating in categories such as Single’s stroke play, foursome stroke play and better ball stroke play.
Zimbabwe finished second with a gross score of 754 followed by Zambia on position three with 758, Malawi was number four with 764, and Namibia had 771 on position five while Eswatini was position six with 810.
In an interview, President of Golf Union of Malawi Gift Chidya Gondwe praised the Malawian team for good representation while cherishing the lessons drawn from hosting the championship for both players and the technical team.
“For instance team South African has been all over the world they have the exposure, we have learnt so much from our counterparts, it will be a bench mark going into other tournaments and towards development of golf in the country.
“Our boys had psychological pressure as hosts but they didn’t struggle, rather our counterparts were better skilled, we needed to prepar better, with equipped backing staff and good equipment however this is the last time we are finishing 4th next time we expect to win or finish as runners up,” Gondwe said.
Meanwhile Johnson Omolo, President of African Golf Federation expressed his gratitude to the Government of Malawi, other partners and their global partners Royal and Ancient for supporting the event.
This event is held to promote golf development in Africa we can only develop golf by clustering the regions to ensure the economies of scale can be enjoyed by members of the federation in terms transport, mobilisation and organisation,” said Omolo.
Captain of Malawi, Forindo Rodrick who had hoped for better results highlighted that he had learnt some new techniques and also made a plea for better equipment to match those of their international colleagues.
The Malawi team comprised of Peter Lumbe, Rodrick, Victor Khamalatha and Chrispin Kadzera.
Golf in the African is divided in regions which are North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa wider East Africa Community and SADC member countries. (Regional 5)
The annual event was established in 2000 and S.A has dominated throughout apart from two shocks that came from Zimbabwe and Kenya.
