Uganda and Kenya national golf teams will today, Saturday 16th July battle for the 2022 Africa Region IV Championship title during the event’s finale at the winsome Lake Victoria Serena Golf Resort and Spa, Kigo.
The two sides face-off in the much anticipated final of the six-nation meet after emerging the best two sides in the opening two days played on stroke play format. The final will be played on match play format.
In the opening two days, Kenya bagged 11.5 points whilst second placed Uganda who are also the title holders got 10 points after two days that saw each player in competition play 36 holes/two rounds per day. However, these points won’t count in the final as they were just used to seed teams for the finale.
In the opening day (Thursday), Uganda and Kenya had even scores as both sides returned 5.5 points apiece after exchanging leads in the two rounds.
However, on Friday Kenya gained the lead after they managed to lead both in the first and second round earning themselves six points as Uganda finished second at the end of the day, earning themselves 4.5 points which were enough to get them to the final.
In the final, two of the players of each team (top performers) play singles and the other two players play foursomes and the award of points is as follows; win is 1.0 point, half is 0.5 points, and loss is 0.0 points.
For singles, Uganda’s captain and reigning Uganda Golf Open amateur champion Joseph Cwinyaai will come up against former Uganda Golf Open amateur winner John Lejirma of Kenya while Godfrey Nsubuga who’s one of the top players for the hosts will take on Kenya’s Adel Balala in the other match up.
In foursomes, Ibra Bagalana who replaced an ailing Michael Alunga in Uganda’s team will team up with Denis Asaba to take on Kenya’s pair of Denis Maara and Michael Karanga.
The winning country will be the one which has earned the highest total points in in the match play competition. In case of a tie in the championship match, each country will nominate a player for a 3-hole play off on holes 16, 17 and 18 until there’s a winner.
In the other matchups, countries will be battling for better positions as number three faces number four while number five takes on the sixth placed team.
Third placed Tanzania who have 8.5 points from the opening two days play Rwanda who managed 6.0 points whilst Burundi and Ethiopia who are tied for fifth off 3.5 points will each seek to break the deadlock.
The event is co-sponsored by the R&A, Uganda Golf Union, Lake Victoria Serena Golf Resort & Spa (main sponsor), Pepsi, Casa Solada Hotel, Pinnacle Security & Case Medical Services.
