Babirye tees off revolution

The 67th staging of the Uganda Ladies Open has just returned Angel Eaton as a champion for the third time last weekend.
Fresh from taking a two-year sabbatical, the Tanzanian’s resurgence comes not as a shock but as a troubling inevitability. She is, however, magnanimous in victory. “The competition was really, really hard. Playing with those good players was not easy for me.”
Afternoon has faded into evening, and one of Jonathan Butler’s jazz pieces is blaring out of the public-address system.
Martha Babirye, one of the good players Eaton has referenced, barely looks like a youngster in her charcoal grey dress. If anything, she bears a conspicuous resemblance to an adult female at Uganda Golf Club(UGC)’s 19th hole.

Humbling praise
With spikes removed, hair is being let down as glasses occasionally clink. Having started the afternoon with a one-stroke deficit only to finish nine shots off the pace in the evening, one would expect Babirye’s descent to carry with it a lingering disquiet.
No clinking of glasses. Except it hasn’t.
Babirye is sporting a warm and friendly smile, ready to recount her golf story. It’s a story about pure joy but, just as importantly, about hope.
The 21-year-old takes great delight in the measurable strides she’s made, leaping from handicap 36 to 10 inside 36 months. While some have never seen the purpose in hoping for the best, Babirye has been allowed a fair amount of latitude thanks in no part to glowing comments from her coterie.
“I see Martha playing on the LPGA Tour very soon,” says professional golfer Brian Toolit. “Five years from now I see her playing with the best in the sport. I have very high hopes in her.”
Jinja course is located just a tee shot from the source of the Nile. Sitting astride River Nile - whose source can be viewed from the eighth tee - and Lake Victoria, the nine-hole course commands such a rich textured backdrop. Less known, but no less remarkable, are its three slight doglegs and wildlife theme that tend to layer delight on top of astonishment.
There maybe a dearth of carpeted fairways, but the course’s CV is saved from ridicule by the sheer glut of champions it has groomed. Sadi Onito was by far the most illustrious. He won the Uganda Golf Open Championship amateur title an unparalleled 12 times. Onito lost his battle to cancer in September 2006, but his legend lives on in his children.
One of them, Opio Onito, is a professional golfer based at the unprepossessing club where Babirye learnt the ropes of golf in Jinja. “She started off from rugby, football, cricket, and eventually ended up in Toolit’s academy,” Opio says, adding, “She is a down-to-earth girl who wants to learn and be a better player. Every time I see her around, it’s on a golf course.”

Product of Toolit
It was on a day bathed with sunshine back in 2014 that Babirye - untroubled that she was the only girl in the group of eight - sought to join a youth golf programme at Jinja Club run under the auspices of Toolit.
“The Jinja junior golf team was intended to replace the stars at the club who had left: basically our lot that had joined the paid ranks,” Toolit says of the programme that now has 52 impressionable children entrusted to its care.
“I got Martha to go through the basics - the grip, the posture. Shortly, results were coming out. She won her very first tournament in Jinja.”
Babirye fondly remembers the tournament. “It was the Kakira Open in 2014,” she giggles. “I was the overall winner.”
For those who saw her start from scratch, Babirye’s were anything but baby steps. Opio says: “After working with Toolit, she started playing on her own using one club on a rugby ground every morning. Then she joined caddying to know more about the game before becoming an Artisan.”
Toolit says when Babirye got a hang of the sport, she would - and still - hits the ball “so pure.” That distinctive sound of club face meeting ball triggers a roar of approval from the gallery at the 12.

Open fairytale
The wheels appear to be coming off Babirye’s wagon having taken a one-shot overall lead at the front nine on the final day of the 2017 Uganda Ladies Open. A double-bogey on the par-4 No.10 and another dropped shot on the next hole only serve to underline the fact that she’s on the skids.
Pulling a driver out of the bag at UGC’s stroke index one hole is always ill-advised. Yet that is what Babirye does at the par-4 No.12. A collective shock is almost palpable in the ranks of the gallery.
“In golf, you have to take risks to be a champion,” she later says after placing seventh - the only double handicap to make the top 10.
Back-to-back pars on 12 and 13 are rendered futile by bogeys on 14, 16, and 17 as well as a double-bogey on 15 (she triple bogeyed the so-called Luwero Triangle in round one en route to carding 77).
By that time, any hopes of the youngster sporting shouting pink sleeves upsetting the applecart are dead in the water. Babirye has nevertheless won many hearts.
“She did extremely well. I’m very proud of her,” Toolit says after his former pupil has handed in her scorecard.
The thing that endeared Babirye to Toolit is the fact that “she is a very quick thinker.” He strongly believes she will go back to the drawing board and work on her short game that sits oddly against her tee and approach shots.
“If I can get into a golf academy I can improve. Right now I have no personal coach, so it’s mostly trial and error,” Babirye says.

Family affair
The youngster used her twin brother, Matthew Kato, to carry her bag during the Open. Babirye says she will more than reciprocate the brotherly love during the Amateur Open that climaxes this weekend.
Kato is a 10-handicapper just like his twin sister. “He’s not sure whether he will play because he hasn’t paid the greens fees, but I will pay them as well carry his bag,” Babirye reveals.
Babirye has a little bit of money in her pocket thanks to her sponsors, Shares Uganda Limited. She has also since switched allegiances from Jinja Club to UGC.
“I have been here since February,” she says of the switch. “I have nothing but respect for the people here. They have treated me well.”
She, however, never forgets her roots. A few months back, she found herself entangled in a web. She was registered to play the Eskom Open in Jinja as well as Gadies and Lentlemen Tournament at UGC Kitante. She figured in both and turned up victorious on both fronts. “I played the Eskom Open in the morning and Gadies and Lentlemen in the afternoon. It was an amazing achievement. My best to date!”
Barring a disaster of earth-moving proportions, bigger feats beckon.

BABIRYE profile
Full name:
Martha Babirye
Born:
June 6, 1996
Nickname:
Mata (milk)
Golf career:
Started in 2014
Nurtured:
Jinja Golf Club
Coach:
Brian Toolit
Club:
Uganda Golf Club
Handicap:
10
Local idol:
Flavia Namakula
Role model:
Lydia Ko - Korean-born New Zealand professional golfer.
Best course:
Lake Victoria Golf Resort in Serena, Kigo.
Other sports:
Tennis, Rugby,
Cricket & Football
Holiday Destination:
Australia