The Zimbabwe Junior Golf Team is returning home triumphant, after finishing second in the All Africa Junior Golf Challenge this past week. Team Zimbabwe amassed 929 points in the 72 hole competition in Lusaka which ran from May 5-8. Captain Jack Allard formerly of Falcon College came fourth overall with teammates David Amm finishing 8th, Kieren Vincent 11th and Bekithemba Ndlovu 13th. The winner of the tournament was South Africa’s Marco Steyn.
Although South Africa’s top place was assured from the first day of the tournament, the second place for Zimbabwe was no guarantee as they were a mere five shots ahead of third place Zambia after Day 3 of the competition. On that day, Allard shot level par with Amm closely behind him with +2. However, Vincent and Ndlovu had less favorable days, both finishing the course +9. The team pulled together on the last day of the competition to increase their margin from 5 to 7 points and secure second place.
Team Zimbabwe’s second place win assures them a place in the Toyota World Junior Golf Team Championship which will be held in Nagoya, Japan from June 16-19. In golf, the lowest point team total wins a competition, South Africa won the Challenge in Zambia by a wide margin with 874 points. Hosts Zambia came third with 936 and Kenya fourth with 962 in the ten team pan-African challenge.