eBusiness Weekly
Chipo Sabeta
PROFESSIONAL golfers in Zimbabwe and abroad are dismayed by the cancellation of the 10th Zimbabwe Open, the richest professional golf tournament locally and one of five most prestigious tournaments on the Sunshine Tour schedule.
Normally held during the Easter Holidays period at the Royal Harare Golf Club course, the country’s premier golf tournament was moved to August 26, 2019 before being called off.
Zimbabwe Professional Golf Association (ZPGA) president, Garry Thompson, confirmed the cancellation.
“We are sad to announce that Zimbabwe Open was cancelled forthwith and we were hopeful that we could see our players taking part in the tournament.
“As ZPGA we, however, find solace in that local tournaments are coming and recently we held the inaugural Wingate Park Pro Challenge and up next is the Platinum Challenge in Kadoma,” said Thompson.
Beyond the near-term sport competition and social impact of hosting Zimbabwe Open, on a bigger scale, the cancellation has affected the tourism sector and foreign currency earnings among other factors.
A strong field of professional golfers from the European and Sunshine Tour including past winner from South Africa, were expected to compete on the local golfing scene this year.
The event was expected to bring significant longer-term benefits that include boosting tourism by raising the profile of host city Harare, infrastructure development, home advantage and national pride among others.
Hosting Zimbabwe Open was going to provide a platform for invaluable marketing and promotional opportunities that would have ongoing benefits, strengthening Zimbabwe’s reputation as a tourist and business friendly destination and further encouraging travel to the region.
However, lack of clarity over official foreign currency exchange rate policy prior to the introduction of a formal inter-bank market in February, was cited as the main cause for the delayed staging of the tourney by the chairman of the Zimbabwe Open Committee Livingstone Gwata.
Bankrolled by a number of local corporates led by Old Mutual, an integrated financial services provider, the Zimbabwe Open golf tourney cannot be ignored as consistent corporates were also struggling to raise funding for the prestigious tournament.
Zimbabwe has been facing foreign exchange related challenges amid high prevalence of illegal trading in hard currency, especially the US dollar.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe then introduced an inter-bank foreign exchange market to improve the distribution of foreign currency and remove the distortions that were besetting the market.
“While our sponsors and partners were ready and willing, we were unable to accurately invoice them in the first two months of the year as we awaited resolution of the foreign currency rate uncertainty that persisted in the market.
“This was critical as the bulk of our staging costs are in South African rand while players are also paid in foreign currency,” he said.
The previous tourney was sponsored to the tune of R2 million sponsorship package having been increased from R1,8 million with partners like Sahwira Events Management, ZOL, Golden Pilsener and Tongaat Hullets, among several others participating.
Last year, Bryce Easton, who fired a bogey free nine under-par 63 for a tournament total of 16-under, is the defending champion of the prestigious tournament after winning the 2018 edition, becoming the ninth successive South African to win the country’s flagship golf tournament.
He walked away with R317 000.
Despite the importance of the results of this particular event, Zimbabwe Golf Association president Mufaro Chivonivoni, vowed to preserve their dignity as they map a way forward.
“There are minimum financial requirements this tourney is supposed to fulfil under the Sunshine Tour regulations and cannot be comprised because that is the standard.
“It’s a hard decision. There were a lot of people involved, a lot of conversations and the tournament chairman, Gwata is well-placed with finer details. There was a lot of potential, a lot of hope to play this year. To have it cut underneath, is never what you want,” he admitted.
“There’s a lot of disappointment for sure, but it’s not anybody’s fault but we will try to map the way forward. It’s unfortunate.”
Expectations were also high for local professionals following an unimpressive show last year.
So much was expected from Zimbabwean professionals Ryan Cairns, Mark Williams, Robson Chinhoi, Marc Cayeux, Thompson and Trainos Muradzikwa who were eyeing a top notch chance this year.
