Local pros left sinking to rise no more at Kigo

The usage of home here is every inch loose. The picturesque Lake Victoria Serena Golf Resort & Spa’s par 72 course was as alien to Ugandan golfers as the legion of their foreign counterparts.

Many of the Ugandans, who are so accustomed to playing on tree-lined courses, laboured mightily with the unique water features at Kigo.

They were not helped by pin placements that were oftentimes daring to the point of making golfers vulnerable to routine harassment from gusty conditions.

The final round of the Ladies Open, played with rain pouring down in torrents, provided a vivid example of the physical exertion necessary to the grim undertaking of taming the Kigo course.

Martha Babirye, one of a handful of Ugandan golfers to emerge from the series with her reputation intact, overcame many adversities (including a troublesome knee) to take a handsome win.

Those that trivialised her feat on account that she was playing on her home course soon had a change of mind after Fred Wanzala, the club pro at Kigo, failed to make the cut by some distance in the professionals’ category.

Wanzala was far from being the only Ugandan professional whose skill - or rather lack of - served him poorly at Kigo.
A paltry three Ugandan professionals made it to the business end of the tournament. And with that feat had a [pitiful] share of the $50,000 purse. The abject performance collectively opened Ugandan pros up to criticism, forcing Emmanuel Onito Opio Jr to chip in with a rejoinder.

Onito’s plea
The son of Uganda’s most successful amateur golfer, Sadi Onito, Opio was one of the three Ugandan pros that made the cut. The others being Phillip Kasozi and Abraham Ainamani. After braving one stinging criticism after the other, Opio let loose and used his Facebook account to express his disappointment. “What,” he asked the critics, “have u (sic) done to improve there (sic) game?”
The short answer is probably nothing. There is, however, hope that the newly formed Safari Tour will be a game changer.

The hope is that it will give pro golfers a golden opportunity to enjoy a windfall of sorts. The lack of money in their pocket has been fronted as a determining factor that occasioned poor performances at Kigo.

Steeply high green fees kept Ugandan pros off the course in the buildup to the tournament.
So when D-day came, they were no different from a fish out of water on a course dotted with challenging water features.

Fufa-Proline stalemate a typical Ugandan problem

Ugandan football yet again finds itself in a dark place after Fufa roused the ire of topflight club, Proline with a tough regime of sanctions.

The sanctions, which include a Shs5m financial penalty for bringing the sport into disrepute as well chalking off half a dozen points and goals apiece, have filled Proline faithful with such inexpressible anguish and terror.

Unsurprisingly, the Uganda Cup champions have taken a decidedly dimmer view of Fufa’s reading of the choice not to play club football during a Fifa-sanctioned international break. Proline officials charge that the series of punishments in their cruelty reflect poorly on Fufa. The cries have not gone unnoticed, prompting a mixture of derision and alarm among fans.

Proline’s cryptic warning that it will go as far as casting its lot with the Court of Arbitration for Sport points to a potentially devastating future. It threatens to haul Ugandan club football back to the forgettable period where what happened between the four walls of a boardroom got more column inches than heroics achieved on the pitch. And indeed the debacle got more coverage than Proline’s credible draw away to AS Kigali in a Caf Confederation Cup qualifier.

The growing crowds at local club matches was starting to offer a measure of the distance the country has travelled. Unfortunately, the new feud, stemming from pervasive fears real and imagined, risks bringing into sharp relief the fact that old foes did no more than paper over cracks. While this only succeeded in creating a chaotic mix of peril and promise, there was always the clear and present danger of old wounds opening up.

And so, here we go again. We have at our doorstep a war that will be fought by ever-shifting factions unpredictable in their motives and action. Many will see the conflict primarily as a means to pursue their self-interests, variously defined.

It shouldn’t be that way. Football should always come out as winner. And if it is to do so on this occasion, then we should have a sober discussion about the scheduling of fixtures of our topflight clubs. The cold truth is that the scheduling is impossibly poor and desirous of a rethink.
Fufa’s reasoning that staggering fixtures during international breaks will only create a monster pileup is sound. But only superficially. Just beneath the surface lies a laziness that some would say is as inherent as exclusive to Ugandans. Here is another cold truth: if sleeves were rolled, the powers that be would find a solution that needn’t have to run counter to international breaks.

It could also possibly help them find wisdom in that age-old dictum that warns us not to bite more than we can chew. Why take on two Cecafa competitions? Moreover pencilling them in at the time when you could reschedule fixtures that have piled up from international breaks! We can be our own worst enemy at times. No?

What we now know....

We know that the 2019 Rugby World Cup kicked off on Friday in the Land of the Rising Sun with hosts Japan facing Russia.
A dominant performance saw the hosts come from behind to take a 30-10 win with Kotaro Matsushima going over thrice.

We also know that rugby enthusiasts did not wait long for a blockbuster contest. Yesterday, two of the odds-on favourites, New Zealand and South Africa locked horns in what must have been an epic battle.

We know that many respected voices believe Saturday’s match is a dress rehearsal of the final. England, Ireland, Australia and Wales will nevertheless be quietly confident about their chances of landing the Webb Ellis trophy.

With good reason too! It should be a riveting World Cup, and that can only be music to the ears of neutrals. This we know for sure.

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@robertmadoi