ULGA pump up Ladies Open with foreign legion entries

Uganda Breweries Joyce Namutebi (R) Tournament Manager Innocent Kihika (C) Byenkya at the launch of Tusker Ladies Golf Open at Uganda Golf Club. PHOTO BY EDDIE CHICCO

KAMPALA. Flavia Namakula’s permanent move to the paid ranks of golf is the inevitable implication that she will not defend her title when the Tusker Malt Uganda Ladies Open tees-off on September 7.
Namakula’s absence for that 67th three-day Open has raised the biggest question from the fraternity as: Who will be the tournament’s poster lady?
“Among the star players we have Irene Nakalembe. We also have Eva Magala and Harriet Kitaka,” Uganda Ladies’ Golf Union (ULGA) president Maximilia Byenkya answered at the weekly build-up press conference held at the Uganda Golf Club in Kitante yesterday.
Nakalembe, a handicap five player, will be the face to lead to the home players having finished joint-second behind Namakula last year.
And she could have won had it not been a treacherous par-5 Hole No.8 where she took a triple-bogey and double-bogey in her last two rounds.
However, Byenkya announced that the Ladies Open, which rolls off a three-in-one Tusker Open, is boosted by a big cast of foreign players will take the field at the par-72 Kitante course.
“To-date about 120 ladies have registered for the tournament,” Byenkya said in an interview. “So far five countries have expressed interest and that is Tanzania, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Rwanda and Nigeria.”
Of that legion, it includes two-time champion Tanzanian Angel Eaton, who is also the last foreign to win the Ladies Open - 2013. Eaton will travel will counterparts in Hussein Madina, Hawa Wanyeche, Ayne Magombe and Vicky Elias.
Meanwhile, Kenyans Mercy Nyachama and Agnes Nyaiko, who finished 13 strokes behind Namakula in fourth place last year, will also feature alongside experienced Zimbabwean Loice Chingono.

TUSKER MALT UGANDA OPEN
UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS
September 7-9: Ladies Open
September 13-16: Amateurs
September 27-30: Pros
2016 OPEN CHAMPIONS
Ladies: Flavia Namakula (UGA)
Amateurs: Ronald Otile (Uganda)
Pros: Joshua Seale (RSA)