Namulonge Club looks to grow with Equity NARO Open

Over the last half-a-decade, the Mary Louise Simkins Club in Namulonge has been jostling for space in the conversation of Uganda’s golf.

Several upcoming players and lovers of the game have made their way into golf through Namulonge either via membership or practice rounds.

“It is a training ground for many golfers,” club captain Collins Bulafu describes the course which recently grew to nine holes after the inclusion of a new par-3. 

Perhaps, Namulonge will take greater heights after it holds its first-ever major when they stage the inaugural Open bankrolled by their parent agricultural firm and title sponsors Equity Bank.

New highs
The Namulonge course is hosted within the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) crops resources research and development institute.

“We are really delighted to have a tournament of this magnitude,” remarked club chairman Martin Nsubuga during the launch at Namulonge yesterday.

In the past, Namulonge has hosted a few in-house competitions and in 2019, they were included as part of the Uganda Golf Union Tour.

But this Equity Bank-funded championship is set to be a game changer for the club which is nearing 150 members including 20 ladies and 17 artisans.

A field of about 25 players is entered to compete for a Shs6m kitty over 36 holes beginning today before 80 amateurs wrestle in stableford format on Saturday.

The notion

Equity. “Our business is transforming lives, giving opportunity and creating wellness in the community,” noted Equity Bank’s head of retail George Kato. “We have the passion to support sports, and we had a similar tournament in Fort Portal. Sports is healthy and we are out here to support our customers and Ugandan golf both in business and health,” added Kato.  “I want to assure you that from today onwards, Namulonge is not going to be the same,” Bulafu stated.

“We are overly subscribed but, we are staging this event under safety protocols against Covid-19.”