Kenyans trailblaze at the Uganda Amateur Open

By the time you read this, the Uganda Open Golf Championship will be well into its third round at the Lake Victoria Serena Resort in Uganda. The four-day, 72-hole professional golf tournament is part of the three week golf extravaganza that constitutes the Uganda Open, beginning with the Junior Open, the Ladies Open, the Amateur Open and finally the main professional golf event. This array of competitions, held back to back at the same venue every year, makes Uganda Open one of the biggest professional and amateur golf festivals in Africa.

The Uganda Amateur Open was staged from the 4th to 7th September, 2019 and Kenya’s Daniel Nduva emerged victorious with a score of 2-under par 286, beating his countryman Simon Njogu with a single stroke. Another Kenyan, Samuel Njoroge Chege finished in third place, even par over the four rounds.

Nduva becomes the first Kenyan amateur since 2007 to win the Uganda Amateur Open. Speaking after his round, Nduva dedicated his victory to his late mother, Diana Munyao, who was a keen golfer herself. “My mum started me off in golf and she made me who I am today,” he said. “I dedicate this victory to her.” The champion also announced that at 23-years he would not be back to defend his victory. “I want to leave the amateur space to the younger players, there is a lot of talent in Uganda and I am sure we will soon see some stars emerge.”

Joseph Cwinyaai was the top placed Ugandan with a score of 5-over par 293. Crowd favourite, Ronald Otile finished T5 alongside Denis Asaba, also of Uganda. Otile, who was chasing what would have been his fourth Uganda Amateur Open title, faltered in round one, returning a poor score of 82. And whilst he regrouped and posted scores of 68 and 66 in rounds two and three, a closing round of 79 was not good enough to close the gap. Otile’s score of 66 is the new course record at the championship 18-hole Lake Victoria Serena Resort.

And before we bring out the champagne, let me share a worrying statistic from the amateur event; only four rounds broke 70, two of them from Otile and only a further six rounds were under par; and whilst the course is challenging, with water hazards at every turn, East Africa’s top amateurs should not be struggling to break par, they should be better than that on any golf course. This performance is reflected in the final leaderboard, which has only three players at par or better – not a good result for our top elite crop of amateur golfers.

Nduva, Otile and the other top elite amateur golfers now join the professionals in the main tournament that enters its third day today. With an initial starting field of 106 golfers, including seven amateurs, the field was reduced to top 30 and ties after the second round yesterday. The Kenyan delegation of 17 golfers is led by defending champion Dismas Indiza, Greg Snow, David Wakhu, Riz Charania and CJ Wangai. Indiza will face Portuguese Stephen Ferreira, who finished second at the KCB Karen Masters 2019, Matthew Wahome from Nyali who will be playing in only his second event as a Pro golfer, Ales Florent and Antier Guillaume from France, Uganda’s veteran Pros Deo Akope, Dennis Anguyo and Philip Kasozi as well as a huge continent from Zimbabwe and Zambia including Tongoona Charamba.

At the time of going to press, Kenya’s Justus Madoya and Charamba were the joint club house leaders with scores of 2-under par through the first round. Zambia’s Madalitso Muthiya finished his first round T5 at even par. With play still ongoing, the projected cut was placed at +2 – an indication of the level of skill on display at the Uganda Open. At the other end of the spectrum, over 20 Pros had returned scores of 10-over par and worse – again demonstrating the challenge presented by this course.

Live scoring for the Uganda Open is available on golf box.dk – another plus for the tournament and many congratulations to the organisers for getting this bit right!