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TOUGH OUTING FOR GOLFERS IN REGION V

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MBABANE – The Eswatini team returned home empty-handed from the three-day Region V Golf Challenge hosted in Malawi in the capital city Lilongwe.

Eswatini finished last out of the six countries that participated in this high-level tournament, which was won by South Africa. Remarkably, South Africa has won the competition in every year since inception in the year 2000, except only on two occasions when Kenya and Zimbabwe snatched it. The Region V tournament is under the auspices of the Africa Golf Confederation (AGC) headed by Johnson Omolo of Uganda. It is sponsored by the Royal and Ancient commonly known as the R&A, which is the world’s golf mother body.

determined

The Eswatini team comprising of Justice Dlamini, Siboniso Simelane, Mfundo Nxumalo and Machawe Maziya left for Malawi last week Tuesday and they were highly determined to finish within the top three. However, it was not to be as Zimbabwe and Zambia emerged the second and third top finishers after South Africa. After competing in two singles strokeplays, foursomes and betterball over three days, Eswatini recorded a gross of 810 to finish last and slightly behind Namibia and Malawi, who accumulated 771 and 764 gross scores, respectively. Otherwise, the winners South Africa scored 691 followed by Zimbabwe and Zambia with 754 and 758, respectively.

Leader of the Eswatini delegation Sifiso Dhlamini said the team’s performance reflected the standard of golf in the kingdom. He praised the players for doing everything in their powers to put up a good fight, but said their ability was genuinely not at par with the rest of the participating countries. Dhlamini said the players’ attitude and morale was excellent but were not exposed to the equivalent resources and preparatory programmes as the other countries. “Honestly, the players gave it their all from the first day and never gave up to the last day. Had they not been as determined, it could have been worse. The lesson from this event is that our standard is low compared to the other countries in the region and our preparations were not as comprehensive,” he said.

Dhlamini said there was no doubt that Eswatini boasted highly capable golfers, whose skills needed to be complemented by good governance and administration of the sport. He observed that South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi invested immensely in junior development and were now reaping the results. He said a majority of the countries that participated in the Region V competition were represented by teenagers groomed through well-structured development programmes over the years.

learnt

“We have learnt from this tournament that there is a lot that we are not doing right as a country. The honours is on our national golf union to pay more attention to young players’ development, benchmark and create collaborations with the best performing countries such as South Africa,” Dhlamini said. He advised that identifying and preparing the team to represent Eswatini in next year’s Region V Challenge should begin with immediate effect. Meanwhile, the team’s Captain Justice Dlamini said they learnt a lot from the experience, which they will share with the rest of the golf community in the country.

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