WINDHOEK – Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL) launched the 2nd round of the Windhoek Lager Africa Jacket Golf Championship, which tees off next month until June next year.
Ian Stevenson, Manager Sponsorships & Events at NBL expressed his delight with the fact that the 1st round proved a huge success and subsequently expanded to include more African countries.
“Although I cannot officially confirm the countries that will definitely participate, all indications are that the likes of Kenya, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania and Uganda will all sign by next week.
“These are all countries where Windhoek Lager has distribution channels and this will bring participating nations to 10 for this year’s championship,” said Stevenson.
According to Stevenson, some people said at the inaugural launch that this was a bold venture and it would be difficult to pull off, but despite this, a very successful championship in the 5 countries culminated in a final play-off in Namibia in June this year.
“The objective of the Windhoek Lager Africa Jacket Golf Championship was to drive more golfers to participate in existing competitions in each country and by virtue of the fact that in some of these competitions, the local unions had to place a cut-off number of entries, this objective was truly realized.”
Hugh Mortimer, General Manager, Windhoek Golf and Country Club, said that the tourney had reached the corners of Africa and the interest in participation was extraordinary while enquiries from African countries in general were overwhelming.
Without a doubt, this tournament is set to become a major amateur tourney on the African golf calendar similar to the existing All Africa and Zone VI tournaments.
Mortimer believes the popularity of golf has increased dramatically over the past few years thanks to media coverage and in particular TV, but the popularity had not necessarily increased the numbers of golfers.
“In fact, the numbers are reducing rather disappointingly. This is mainly due to the cost, the availability of facilities and the tremendous growth in other sports – in particular cycling. This is not a phenomenon only in Africa but throughout the world,” he said, adding that reduced numbers are being reported from everywhere in America and Europe.
“It is with this in mind that we as administrators need to encourage, through coaching and making facilities available, our learners and juniors to take a positive interest in the sport particularly here in Africa.”