Namibia need lots of international competitions to gain a competitive edge and swing among the best golf-playing nations on the continent, Namibia Golf Federation secretary general Brenda Lens has said.

Her statement follows Namibia’s eighth place overall out of 15 countries by golfers Edwin Kutara, Kevin Wentzel, Walter Heibeb and Grant Nather at the All-Africa golf championship held in Cairo, Egypt, from 26 to 30 September. 

Morocco finished first, followed by South Africa and Kenya in third position.

Lens said although their placing is not bad, she feels they would have done better if the players had more international competitions and started practising earlier than they did. 

“The team only practised three weeks ahead of the tournament, and I think if we had started a month or two before the main event, the results would have been different,” she added.  

In terms of lessons learned from the tournament, Lens said they will organise more local tournaments and also pursue more international training. 

“The tournament showed us that if we want to compete against the best on the continent, we have to practice on time. We should also enter our golfers into more international games so that they get exposure. It’s not the position we wanted to finish but I think we are happy with the results. A lot of nations that finished below us wanted to be in our position, and it shows how much of a great nation we are,” she added.