Woman golfers target podium finish

With Namibia set to host the All Africa Challenge Golf Trophy from the 1 to 3 April in the capital, national senior woman golfers face a mountainous task to attain a podium finish.

Speaking to Desert FM recently, Namibia Amateur Ladies Golf Union (Nalgu) secretary general Tasia Kalondo says the union will initially host the Southern African Regional qualification from 1 to 3 April.

“We are hosting the southern Africa qualifiers, and the top-performing countries then go to the All Africa Golf Challenge Trophy.”

The regional qualifiers will feature six countries, hosts Namibia, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe, vying for top honors.

Namibia is confident of a great showing with nothing less than a podium finish.

“The All Africa Challenge Golf Trophy will see the Windhoek Golf Course buzzing with a very high level of competing players. Hope Namibia can stand on the podium by taking the home advantage,” Kalondo says.

“We want to see a Namibian woman golfer winning some championship or tournament outside the borders of Namibia and also beating the men in the more open competitions.”

“We need more exposure and that is part of our role as a committee to try and provide the women who are playing the opportunity to compete more regionally and internationally.

“I am so excited . . . In terms of the regional challenge and exposure and the type of competitiveness, South Africa is definitely in a league of their own,” she says.

FUTURE OF WOMEN’S GOLF

Kalondo says there is a need for more exposure as currently there are only a few international competitions for exposure purposes.

She thanks Nedbank Namibia for the recently held Nedbank Ladies Central Open that accommodated junior players.

The sixth edition and round one of the Nedbank for Good Series took place early this month at the Omeya Golf Club and saw 106 players tee off on the day, which was one of the biggest fields in the event’s history.

The organisers of the Nedbank Ladies Central Open said the event’s success was beyond their expectations, as they saw a total of 26 senior women and six juniors participating in the tournament.

“Combining the two tournaments was a masterstroke as it allowed the ladies to display their skills on a very competitive platform. Plaudits to Nedbank

Namibia because without them, we would have only had the Coastal Open as a women’s competition for this year. We had a huge tournament with six juniors playing well.”

Kalondo says as the new leadership, they are actively developing the game for the younger generation through planned workshops and training programmes this year to attract new talent.

“The current average age of women golfers in Namibia is 40, and that is too old for Namibia – especially when it comes to international competitions.

“We have to focus on the youngsters, otherwise we are going to struggle in having a new generation of competitive golfers,” she says.