Rugumayo reaps fruits of patience

On the eve of the 75th staging of the Uganda Amateur Golf Open Strokeplay Championship, Ronald Rugumayo was at Uganda Golf Club’s putting green sizing up putt after putt. Some would hole out; others pull up short or overshoot.
The media was not scrumming around to capture Rugumayo’s sequence of actions. The lanky golfer had not blipped on their radar as one of the odds-on favourites. In fact, very few people - if any - had been brave enough to give the 25-year-old a fighting chance at Ugandan amateur golf’s flagship event.
He was routinely dismissed as a bottler destined to forever end up as the bridesmaid.

Contrasting build-ups
Not that this gnawed at him. If anything, it had the Tooro Golf Club (TGC) member trusting his gut instinct all the more. “I believe, having come so close on many previous occasions, now is the time,” Rugumayo said, his tone deliberate and serious in its certainty.
After the interview, Rugumayo went back to the putting green and started with a seven-footer that hit right in the sweet spot.
The ball dropped in, dead centre of the hole. With hindsight, the golfer fondly referred to as ‘Mayo’ was right to fuss about his putts.
There would be something of an unparalleled drama about pressure putts when the Open teed off.
It was a tournament in which a putt rolling into the hole had that bit more of a naked appeal than a drive soaring into space.
Driving is of course Ronald Otile’s forte. The two-time champion had just washed down his three pounds’ weight of lunch with a quart of soft drink on the eve of the showpiece.
The picture of calm, he was now watching fellow amateur golfer Joseph Cwinya-ai dig into his meal. “It is going to be a battle of the titans,” Cwinya-ai forecasted.
The past two championships, Otile, much like a smart chess player, had always been one move ahead of the field.
A hat-trick, which would cement his place in the pantheon of Ugandan golf’s all-time greats now beckoned.
“I know it will be a strong field, but what I can tell them is that the champion is ready for them,” Otile said, oblivious to the time Rugumayo was putting in a stone’s throw away at the putting green.
When Otile won his first Open Championship title in 2015, Rugumayo placed in what was then a career-best fourth position.
It looked like ‘Mayo’ was headed for more pain when the 2017 event laid up at halfway stage.
Determinant round
For someone who rightly says “my weapon is around the greens”, Rugumayo’s putter went cold during the opening two rounds. Scores of 80 and 78 say as much. They show that the scratch golfer had not gotten a handle on his chipping and putting.
But then he shot 69 during Round Three, and everything changed. “I won this championship on Day Three,” he noted after an eventful final round. “When I saw Otile’s score, [a four-over-par 76], I said, ‘yes!’”
The 76 when aggregated with prior scores of 72 and 79 meant that Otile had not pulled away from the field. In fact four other golfers - Rugumayo inclusive - had matched Otile’s gross aggregate of 227. And so began one of the greatest Open Championship final round showdowns. The showdown at Uganda Golf Club (UGC)’s par-72 Kitante course felt like a slugfest between two seasoned heavyweights.

Bare knuckles exchange
In the blue corner, the two-time champion Otile. In the red corner, Rugumayo, the perennial choker. The pressure was well and truly on. “Pressure is normal. What matter is how you handle it,” Rugumayo would later note.
And handle it superbly well he did, much to the astonishment of many.
“When I was drawn with Otile, I told myself one thing, ‘Otile is a long hitter,’” Rugumayo said, adding, “I was like, ‘let him hit his long balls, and at the end of the day both of you will hole out.’ I stuck to my game plan of chipping and putting.” The gallery got a sneak peek of this trading of jabs from the two heavyweights at the par-5 third. While Otile’s long hitting effortlessly helped him on the green for three, Rugumayo found himself having to chip effectively on the green to set up a birdie opportunity. He did just that before sinking a nine-footer.
After failing to match Rugumayo’s birdies on the fifth and seventh, Otile restored parity when his long hitting fashioned an easy birdie chance on the eighth. The two-time champion was level, but not for long. A double-bogey on the par-3 ninth handed Mayo a two-shot lead. This heavyweight slugfest was occasioning more twists and turns than a Hollywood cliff-hanger. A bogey on the 10th coupled with Otile’s traditional birdie on number 13 meant there was little to choose between the two front runners. More twists and turns were still to come. Otile found himself on the ropes when his poor chipping left him with a double-bogey on the par-4 15th. Mayo bogeyed the next hole, and bit his lower lip after Otile pulled off a birdie putt on number 17.

Gallery’s push
Bogeys from both heavyweights on the last hole forced a playoff. The gallery had at that point gone into overdrive.
Chants of ‘Mayo’ reverberated around the 18th. Said Rugumayo: “When I saw I also have supporters, it gave me morale.”
The morale got Mayo’s adrenaline going and made him thrive in the close situation. Successive birdies on No. 12, 17 and 18 - the latter two secured with jaw-dropping hole-outs - left Mayo head and shoulders above Otile. “I think this was my right time to win this tournament. For the last five years I have been messing up on the last day.” Not this time.
Mayo was left in seventh heaven in his eighth Open Championship appearance. He is now contemplating joining the paid ranks. “I also want to give young players who are coming up a chance to join the [national] team.”
With the monkey having jumped off his back, no-one can grudge the decision or his moment of triumph for that matter.

75TH TUSKER UGANDA OPEN

FINAL LEADERBOARD
1 Ronald Rugumayo (UGA) 80 78 69 72 299
2 Ronald Otile (UGA) 72 79 76 72 299
3 Paul Muchangi (KEN) 76 77 78 69 300
4 Samuel Njoroge (KEN) 77 79 71 74 301
5 Daniel Baguma (UGA) 75 74 78 76 303
6 Ismail Mahmood (UGA) 74 78 81 71 304
T7 Alloys Nsabimana (RWA) 78 75 76 77 306
T7 Dennis Asaba (UGA) 74 76 78 78 306
T9 Edwin Mudanyi (UGA) 77 79 80 72 308
T9 Deco Mutebi (UGA) 76 76 76 80 308

Rugumayo AT A GLANCE
Full name: Ronald Rugumayo
Born: December 12, 1992
Nickname: Big Mayo
Golf career: Started in 2009
First Open: 2010
Home club: Tooro Golf Club
Mentor/Coach: Steven Kasaija
Handicap: 00 (Scratch)
Local idol: Denis Anguyo
Proud of: Daniel Baguma
Winning caddie: Lawrence Marino
Role model: Rory McIlroy – Northern Ireland professional golfer
Best course: Devonvale Golf Estate in Cape Town, South Africa.
Other sports: Football, Swimming and Basketball
Favourite Holiday Destination: North Caribbean Jamaica
Golf Designer: Mathias Kalule of Shoeman International
Sponsor: Clive Catley Best Dish: Matooke & beans
Best Drink: Tusker Malt Cell phone: Iphone 5s
Dream Car: Bugatti Veyron Tee-shot: 275-290 yards
Fairway percentage: 95% Motto: Never say never
Advice: If you know you are good at something, commit to it. Don’t lose focus
Additional reporting by Innocent Ndawula