Africa-Press – Uganda. The experienced pairing of Tony Kisadha and Richard Mwami never expected to go past the round of 32 stage of Season VIII of the Stanbic Entebbe Golf Club (EGC) Match-play Challenge at the weekend.
Kisadha and Mwami were meant to face the defending champions Richard Mucunguzi and Saidi Kirarira in the knockout clubhouse championship at the par-71 course.
But, Mwami and Kisadha stunned the 2023 winners with a 5/4 (5-up with four holes to spare) victory on Saturday, sending a shockwave across the EGC clubhouse.
“We thought it would be difficult because they were the champions,” handicap 12 player Mwami told this paper. “But, we thought we had a chance. We prepared for this. We also had a strategy of getting a par on every hole,” he said.
Their pairing made 11 pars, two birdies and two bogeys, just enough to overcome the Kirarira-Mucunguzi challenge. “The putting, we were just doing mostly one putt. We hit 13 of the greens in regulation,” said Mwami who has played the game for 24 years.
But he credited his partner Kisadha, the EGC trustee, even more. “My partner is a solid player. I struggled with my fade shot. The wrists were opening all the time yet in golf, they must lock,” Mwami added.
The victory means that there will be a new Entebbe Challenge champion come the final on October 12. Other pursuers of that glory are single-handicappers Anthony Agaba and Yunus Bbale who ejected Daniel Muwooya and James Okema 4/3.
“We were consistent. There’s only one hole on the front nine where we didn’t get a par,” said handicap eight player Bbale.
They led 4-up after the first four holes but were down to 1-up after the par-5 11th green but Agaba birdied on the par-3 12th green and they also won the par-4 Hole No.14 and par-5 Hole No.15.
There was a painful exit for John Basabose and Kin Karisa who lost 3/2 to Herbert Kamuntu and Stephen Ojambo on the par-3 16th green. “We played one-under gross but we lost. Handicap 24 player Kamuntu had many strokes but we gave it our best,” Basabose admitted.
“We played our best golf,” said handicap eight player Karisa. “We played par or birdie from Hole No.3 up to Hole No.16 but ironically, we couldn’t just win,” added Basabose.
Meanwhile, Casper Okiru and Ronald Osekeny believe they gave it their all against Tony Ojok and Picole Lukyamuzi despite losing 2-up on the par-5 Hole No.18 green.
Former Daily Monitor sports editor Mark Namanya missed the company of his partner Hillary Ndugutse and therefore couldn’t match the weight of the task against Timothy Mwandha and Ssubi Kiwanuka, losing 6/5.
Seasoned competitors Elly ‘Sober’ Mukasa and Kiryowa ‘K.K’ Kiwanuka did not show up and thereby allowed Emmanuel Lwanga and Vincent Asiimwe to take a walkover. We later learnt that Mukasa had lost his father-in-law.
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