Lilongwe Golf Club, Professional Golf Association of Malawi President General Henry Oddillo told the news conference on Thursday the championship is a milestone towards development of the sport in the country.
He further hailed SEED-CO for sponsoring the Malawi Open Golf tournament with huge sum of Prize money which is US$15,000.
The Prize money will be spilt from the top position to perhaps position fifteen and the money will be worked out to see how much each player will be receiving after winning the tournament.
“So far I can confirm that 45 players have registered for the tournament which the majority are Malawians others are from Zambia and Zimbabwe”,
“This will be exciting week in Golf, it’s a four-day tournament which tee off on Tuesday running all the way up to Friday and the tournament will be extended to amateur from Saturday to Sunday. Let me encourage our local players to work extremely hard and win the huge prizes”, He explained.
Gift Kawamba SEED-CO Commercial Director who are sponsoring the championship said they are committed as a company to continue sponsoring Golf in the country.
Kawamba disclosed that SEED-CO has partnered with other companies such as Toyota Malawi, Nissan and all banks in the country just to mention but a few in Sponsoring this year’s Malawi Open Golf Championship.
“We are motivated to partner with Malawi government in developing sports, Golf in particular and we are convinced with feedback. We are getting from other stakeholders hence determined for continued support.
He added, “Having 45 professional players registered for the tourney is great achievement and we are happy as sponsors”.
“We can foresee that in the near future we will have all professional tournament, the prize money that the winners are taking home is encouraging and very soon we would wish to see bigger names in the country than the ones which currently have”.
“Over 200 amateur goffers willing to take part, for us it just shows that people are happy with the sport”, Kawamba said.
Lilongwe Golf Club has however said they are ready to host the tournament, and showed some optimism to win the grant prizes.