This year’s Southern Regional All Africa Ladies Challenge Golf Trophy (SRAACT) takes place on Namibian
soil and will tee off next Tuesday at the Omeya Golf Estate, south of Windhoek. Apart from hosts Namibia, four
other countries from the Southern African region – Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and South Africa – have
so far confirmed participation in the prestigious golfing event. All together 25 international golfers
will take part in the competition, which follows on the heels of the Bank Windhoek Namibia Amateur Ladies
Stroke Play Championship, which take place tomorrow at Omeya Golf Estate. The ladies will use the stroke
play championship as a warm-up for the main event. It will be the first time that an international
tournament will be hosted at the modest Omeya golf course, which is currently in peak condition but presents challenges for all golfers. Each country is allowed to enter a team of up to four golfers with the
best two scores on each of the three days counting. Caro Els (Rossmund), Thea Groenewald (Omeya), Celonika Robinson (Windhoek Golf and Country Club) and Nadia Schmidt (Omeya) will represent Namibia. The team with the lowest gross total at the end of the tourney will be crowned champions on Thursday evening at the gala awards ceremony. Favourites to win the challenge trophy is South Africa, which remains undefeated since the inaugural tournament. The tourney also serves as preparation for the next All Africa Challenge Trophy (AACT), in 2016, where all African golf-playing nations will be in action. This year’s SRAACT will also be an excellent opportunity for the various countries to foster closer ties for the future and at the same time to use the opportunity to discuss mutual
international participation. Thea Groenewald, president of NALGU said: “The Namibian Ladies Golf Union (NALGU) is committed to develop ladies golf in Namibia and to encourage more ladies to take part.
It is a slow process, but we are confident that an international tournament such as SRAACT will certainly benefit
our development efforts and help us realise our goal.”