Girls miss out on All Africa Golf Trophy

The local junior team that will be competing at the annual All Africa Junior Golf Trophy scheduled for the 12th -15th March 2019 will be competing without the girls’ team. Speaking at a media briefing held in Gaborone ahead of the games, the chairman of the event organizing committee, Robert Mpabange said that they do not have a committed girls golf team in Botswana. He expressed worry that even though they had wished that both girls and boys participate at the event, the reality on the ground only allowed a group consisting of boys. The boys’ team will be under the care of coach Mpho Kelosiwang and has the likes of Lerako Molefhe who played in the 2018 World Kids Championships held in Malaysia, Agang Diraditsile, Phillip Collop, Leruri Lemohang and Lemohang Masalila. Mpabange mentioned that assembling a youth team came with great challenges given that BGU does not have an existing league structure that can create competitiveness in the youth. He added that Botswana does not have a system to rank players and there are no dedicated facilities for junior golf development. Adding to that, the President of Botswana Golf Union (BGU), Enoch Mushango said that most local girls do not play golf. Instead the game has in the past been attracting foreign players, “We have only one girl whom we are still monitoring; we wish to attract the girl child to the game,” Mushango said. Mushango added that BGU has to pay more attention to grassroots development because the performance has not been satisfactory in the recent past. Going into the games, the BGU president noted that they hope for satisfactory results given that Botswana has been finishing on the 10th spot and below. Countries that will compete at the tournament include South Africa, Eswatini, Namibia, Mauritius, Tunisia and Gabon amongst others. About 70 athletes will be playing at the competition venue in Phakalane Golf Estate Hotel Resort.