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Dumi Chitengwa…….back in the mix after forced absence

THE 2010 local golf scene will be punctuated by a flurry of tournaments that should ensure no shortage of battered golf courses right around the country, following the release of the this year\'s calendar by the Zimbabwe Golfers Association (ZGA) Secretary Joseph Sithole. The obvious highlight of the year has to be long-awaited return of the Zimbabwe Open which has been off the radar for just about the past decade now. According to ZGA Secretariate, the Zim Open will be held in April 2010 and the finer details are being worked out.

With the ZGA secretariat said to have already appointed a high-powered committee to oversee the organisation of the Zim Open tournament, it is all but certain that the tournament will be staged come April. Also making a welcome return after several years is the Mashonaland South Amateur while the Finlande tournament, that usually features the provincial teams in a matchplay contest, also comes back to the fold. The Finlande comes up in February with the Mashonaland South Amateur coming up in March.

For local amateurs, it is a new season with bigger and more demanding tournaments following the resolution by the ZGA to have all provincial tournaments played over 72 holes in line with international standards. In previous seasons, the Harare Province Amateur, Midlands Amateur, Manicaland Amateur, and Matabeleland Amateur tournaments were played over 36-holes but this year, the tournaments will be held over 72 holes played possibly using an 18-36-18 or 36-36 formula.

What will add an extra bite to the ZGA circuit is the expected return of former leading junior, Dumisani Chitengwa from an enforced sabbatical from the game and a couple of former professional golfers who have since reverted to being amateurs. Given that Chitengwa was in sizzling form when he last competed on the ZGA circuit, he is confident that he will rise to the top once again.

\"I am back,\" Chitengwa told Golfzone recently. \"I am looking forward to competing this year and doing big things on the course. Yes, I haven\'t been competing for a while now but I have been working really hard on my game and I\'m sure I can shine this year.\"

The 2010 ZGA season will tee-off with the Dugmore Trophy to be held in Bulawayo over the weekend of 23-24 January with the next big tournament being the Julius Robinson Trophy on the first weekend of February. The Mashonaland Amateur follows on the 20th and 21st of March with the next amateur tournament coming on May 15 - the Matabeleland Amateur. June will feature the Bata Power tournament in the Midlands from the 12th-13th with the Manicaland Amateur following on the 26th.

In July, the Chapman Grand Slam will come up on the 11th while the Midlands Amateur will run from the 23rd-25th. The Harare Amateur will then follow on the 30th and will overlap into the first day of August. That will be followed by the biggest of the amateur tournaments, the Zimbabwe Amateur which will run from August 13-15 at Royal Harare. Two weeks later, amateur golfers will converge with their professional counterparts at Hippo Valley and Triangle for the second edition of the Lowveld Pro-Am from 27-29 August. The Hillside Masters, which comes up on the weekend of 18-19 September should round off the competitive ZGA season.

While the ZGA men\'s calendar is flooded with fixtures, the women\'s calendar - details of which should be released soon - also has a substantial number of fixtures which should keep the country\'s lady golfers competitively occupied for the entire year.

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