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Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, drives his tee-short at the Africom Zimbabwe Open Pro am at Royal Harare

The Zimbabwe premier, Morgan Tsvangirai teed off in the pro-am at Royal Harare as the Africom Zimbabwe Open roared into life on Monday. He immediately commended the Zimbabwe Open Golf Committee for a sterling job given the short period of time that they managed to put this event together. Approximately 144 golfers are expected to converge at Royal this week, with 114 strong contigent of golfers from outside Zimbabwe already in the country.

The Zimbabwe Open was last played in Zimbabwe in 2001 and won by Darren Fitchadt. Notable big names are Tony Johnstone, John Cunliffe, Adilson Da Silva, Nick Henning, Jbe’ Kruger, Darren Fichadt, Jean Hugo, Tich Moore, Des Teblanche and Jaco Van Zyl to name a few. The Africom Zimbabwe Open, with a purse of ZAR1,2 million, is ranked fifth in Africa in terms of prize money.

The title sponsor is Africom Holdings and therefore the tournament will be known as the AFRICOM ZIMBABWE OPEN for the next 3 years, other sponsors for the tournament are Econet, Innscor, Delta, Zimplats and SAA. It was last hosted in 2001 when South African golfer Darren Fichardt emerged victorious. Royal Harare Golf Club will be hosting the tournament and invitations have been extended to media, sports personalities, golfers, golf club captains and the business community to witness the event.

The Zimbabwe Open Tournament was first played in 1984 and was part of what was known as the Safari Tour, a collection of events in Africa that were played by professionals based on the European Tour during their winter. As a result, it became an event on the European based Challenge tour in 1991, where it remained for two seasons before moving onto the FNB Summer Tour, which became the Southern Africa Tour and later the Sunshine Tour. It will be held at Royal Harare Golf Club during the week commencing Sunday 18 April through to the final day of the tournament on Saturday 24 April 2010. The relevant pre-qualifying games and the traditional pro-am tournaments will be held during this period culminating in the final professional tournament during the last four days of the week.

As it was held in the weeks preceding the Nedbank Golf Challenge, the tournament attracted some of the world’s leading players, as they used it as a warm up to the big money invitational. Past winners include major winners Vijay Singh and Nick Price, who along with Mark McNulty is the most successful player at the event, both men having recorded three victories.
The Zimbabwe Golf Association (ZGA), in consultation with the relevant stakeholders including the Zimbabwe Professional Golfers Association (ZPGA), invited various business leaders and sports personalities to form a Committee with a mandate to run the Zimbabwe Open Golf Tournament in an efficient and transparent manner that promotes sports business and goodwill amongst all stakeholders. The Zimbabwe Open Golf Committee 2010 (ZOGC) was born just before Christmas in December 2009.

The Zimbabwe Open Golf Committee 2010 (ZOGC) has raised more than USD $250,000 which will cover the prize money, which has been set at R1,2 million and has already been paid to the Sunshine Tour, and other related Sunshine Tour expenses which the Committee undertakes to account for in full. We are aware that the Committee wishes to re-launch the Zimbabwe Open Golf Tournament with a big bang and that entails putting together a prize money package that is tweaked above the minimum required by the Sunshine Tour.

Toyota Zimbabwe and American Motors have raised the stakes by sponsoring hole in ones. Toyota have offered a Prado as a prize for the hole in one on hole number 11, while American Motors will have a car on hole number 2 as a prize. Various other corporate companies will be buying holes as sponsors.

While the field has a huge South African presence - with the likes of Thomas Aiken, Josh Cunliffe, James Kingston, Mark Murlessl, a number of golfers from overseas nations are also set to be involved. So far, the English duo of Neil Cheetham and Christopher Corry are confirmed entries, as is Canada's Benjamin Hatchwell and Brazilian Adilson Da Silva who was a regular feature on the local PGA tour in the 1990s.

The defending champion, Darren Fichardt of South Africa, will also be here to defend his title. Other former champions who will feature in the tournament are 1999 winner, Jean Hugo, and the forgotten man, Zimbabwean Tony Johnstone who won the event way back in 1993.

While more entrants are from the Sunshine Tour Order of merit, 30 other slots are already availed for other golf stakeholders. The local Zimbabwe Professional Golf Association (ZPGA) has been allocated 10 slots, while five top Zimbabwean Amateurs will also be accommodated in the field. There are five slots for Africa invites and these will take in the top performers from Zambia, Malawi, Kenya, Namibia and Botswana. There will also be five professional golfers invited by tournament sponsors while another five players will enter via the Zimbabwe pre-qualifier that will be held at Wingate on Sunday 18 April 2010.

According to information released by the Zimbabwe Open Golf Committee, other entrants will come from another pre-qualifier to be held in South Africa between the 8th and 12th of March 2010, with the rest of the envisaged 156-strong field being filled up basing on the Sunshine Tour category list.

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