A handful of the country’s leading golfers are crying foul after their apparent mysterious omission from a list of golfers invited to tee off in the upcoming four-day Royal & Ancient (R&A) Golf Club Tourney, slated for the 21February 2024 in neighbouring South Africa.
Edwin Kutara, a self-proclaimed representative of the aggrieved golfers, expressed their unhappiness to New Era Sport, stating that the details about the tournament were shared with newly- elected Namibia Amateur Golf Union (Nagu) president Toady Gurirab and potential participants less than a fortnight ago during the annual Rossmund open tournament, much to the chagrin of would-be participants.
“Mind you, the entries closed on the 13th of December, and Likius Nande, the top-ranked local golfer at number 328th as per the World Amateur Golf Rankings (Wagr) after week 49, was mysteriously excluded from the team which will compete in the maiden edition of the Africa Amateur Championship, scheduled for 21-24 February 2024 in South Africa, with all expenses to be covered by the R&A,” charged the furious Kutara.
He said some of the golfers included in the list are not even ranked in the top 10 on the Namibia Amateur Golf Federation (Nagf) order of merit list, which was duly updated after the Omeya Open on the 12th of last month. Stephanus Bonifatius and Walter Heibeb are the top-ranked golfers as per the WAGR after week 46, thus earning the pair automatic qualification berths as per the R&A rules.
The rest of the field should be selected from the top 10, while Todd Parker, who is currently in the USA on a college golf programme, is also eligible for selection. Since then, it has emerged that a selected group of golfers, ranked below Nande and Kutara in the top 10 of the Nagu order of merit, discussed the details of the invitation behind closed doors, and were given the nod for consideration ahead of their more celebrated peers.
“It’s a bitter pill to swallow that lowly- ranked golfers not listed on the official Wagr, let alone those absent from the top 10 of the Nagu order of merit, managed to make the cut.
As it stands, the quartet of Kyle Johnson (3360), Charles Lohmann (4078), Kevin Wentzil (1888), and Jonathan Mather (wild card) are all under the microscope. We are flabbergasted, and want to know the applied criteria to identify the secretly-chosen nominees”.
Kutara added that he received an email on 8 December, and registered the next day. However, Nande was unable to register because he did not receive the email, as it was forwarded to the wrong address.
“It should be noted that Nande is without a shadow of doubt the hottest amateur golfer on the local circuit. Strangely, the invitation was not shared with the incumbent Nagu president Gurirab, who succeeded Marco Swarts.” The latter doubled as the designated president of both the Namibia Golf Union and the Nagu until he was democratically toppled from the pedestal at the elective AGM in October this year.
Quizzed to shed more light on the allegations, Gurirab referred all queries to the presiding body Namibia Golf Union (NGU), insisting that the powers that be at the Windhoek Country Club are better-placed to clear the air. It’s further argued that the invitation was supposed to have been shared during the annual Omeya Open last month for the newly-elected Nagu to make the necessary arrangements, but the new bosses were kept in the dark.
“The two basic criteria laid out by the event organisers for entrants read as follows: participants must have a HI (handicap index of 5.4 or lower and 2), and they must be listed on the World Amateur Golf Ranking, with the maximum entry of eight golfers from each federation.
“The submitted entries will be thoroughly evaluated by R&A before sending out the official invitation for participation. As far as we are concerned, we have done everything by the book, and now await the evaluated results from the event organisers,” a defiant Swarts responded with a brief summary.
The eight nominees are Stephanus Bonifatius, Walter Heibeb, Todd Parker, Edwin Kutara, Kevin Wentzil, Likius Nande and Kyle Johnson, while wild card Charlie Lohmann completes the envisaged Namibian delegation.