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Fortis gives Ugandans rare shot at fame

For golfing minnows Uganda, the opportunity to compete in this weeks’ Fortis International Challenge is rare chance to shoot for the stars.

Godfrey Mande, 26, and Deo Akope, who is a year older, will tee up against 16 other two-man nations from Asia, Europe and Africa from Thursday where a top-five finish will earn them a priceless ticket to November’s Omega Mission Hills World Cup in China.

Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee and Prayad Marksaeng, who have a combined 13 wins on the Asian Tour, will starts as firm favourites at Kota Permai Golf and Country Club along with Malaysian duo Airil Rizman and Iain Steel and Singapore’s Mardan Mamat and Lam Chih Bing but the boys from Uganda intend to upset the odds.

“Golf is not a popular sport in Uganda although it’s been around since our colonial days,” said Mande. “The English Premier League (football) commands the attention, everyone will stop and watch it!”

As a kid, Akope head to the golf course and search for used or broken clubs and turn them into a make-shift clubs. While he eventually graduated as a civil engineer, golf became a passion although the playing opportunities are restricted.

“We used to live around the golf course when we were young. That’s how we got interested in golf. We didn’t have any clubs so we played with sticks and tried to shape those sticks into golf clubs,” said Akope.

“We would dig out own holes and make our own golf balls and find about eight used or broken clubs and start using them as golf clubs.”

There are two courses in Uganda where Akope explained that due to civil strife in the 1970s and 1980s, many other facilities became unplayable as “because of the war, there were many land mines around and it wasn’t safe.”

Both players are members of the Southern African Sunshine Tour and harbour big dreams. While they know it is a long shot, Akope hopes to hoist the Claret Jug at the British Open some day while Mande’s wish is to slip on the Green Jacket at the US Masters.

Right now though, their thoughts are firmly on the Fortis International Challenge. They have paid for their own way to Malaysia and hope to be rewarded with a trip to the World Cup, which offers total prize money of US$5 million.

While Richard Lee and Stephen Scahill of New Zealand may not have endured life’s hardship as the Uganda players, they are just as determined to sparkle at Kota Permai.
Both players are keen to play their way to China after Michael Campbell, the 2005 US Open champion, failed to qualify automatically through the Official World Golf Ranking.

“First time for me and I’m looking forward to it. Stephen and I have not played together since we were amateurs some 15 years ago and hopefully, we can play well,” said Lee, a one-time winner on the Asian Tour.

The only time Scahill featured in the World Cup was back in 1999 when the team event was staged in Malaysia and he was thrilled to be back. “Our aim is to get into the top-five.

“New Zealand has a proud history in the game for a small country and we like to continue with that. We tend to have somebody representing New Zealand on any given Tour worldwide and we’ve played in the World Cup a lot.

“It would have been a shame to not have a team in the World Cup this year following last year’s absence and we’ll be doing our best to get New Zealand back in,” he said.

Swaziland withdrew today which reduced the number of teams to 17.

The Fortis International Challenge will use the fourball (better ball) format in the first and third rounds and foursomes (alternate shot) in the second and final rounds.

Teams:

Chinese Taipei (Lin Wen-tang, Lin Wen-hong)
Ghana (Emos Korblah, Victor Brave Mensah)
Holland (Robert-Jan Derksen, Maarten Lafeber)
Hong Kong (James Stewart, Wong Woon Man)
Korea (Lee Sung, Lee Seung-ho)
Myanmar (Zaw Moe, Soe Kyaw Naing)
Malaysia (Iain Steel, Airil Rizman)
Mauritius (Billy Narraina, Vishnoo Seeneevassen)
New Zealand (Stephen Scahill, Richard Lee)
Pakistan (Muhammad Munir, Matloob Ahmed)
Philippines (Tony Lascuna, Gerald Rosales)
Russia (Korchak Igor, Ostankov Victor)
Singapore (Lam Chih Bing, Mardan Mamat)
Switzerland (Martin Rominger, Robert Wiederkehr)
Slovenia (Andrej Kraljic, Janez Grilc)
Thailand (Thongchai Jaidee, Prayad Marksaeng)
Uganda (Deo Akope, Godfrey Mande)

September 25, 2007