THE Sports Council of Zambia (SCZ) has finally taken a pro-active seat in the development of sports in the country.
Unlike in the past when SCZ was almost reduced to a mere armchair critic, the national sports mother body has decided to step up and offer a solution in the development agenda.
Yes, SCZ now wants to encourage, promote and develop professional golf in Zambia.
Since 1972 when the Zambia Open Golf Championship was born, no local player has ever etched his name on the coveted trophy and the closest being in 2006 when Madalitso Muthiya was joint second to winner, Steve Basson of South Africa.
All these years, local golfers have been condemned for their lacklustre performance but no solution was being offered to help improve our players’ showing.
So the stepping in of SCZ this year to help the local golfers, who have been struggling with sponsorship and exposure from time immemorial, is a welcome move.
SCZ through its marketing and fundraising committee has partnered with the Zambia Golf Union (ZGU) to help our disadvantaged professional golfers prepare well for international engagements.
Apart from joining hands with ZGU, SCZ is tying links with the corporate world to help with sponsorship for the professionals.
SCZ announced the lining up of several tournaments aimed at equipping the local players for the three international engagements set to be staged in Zambia this year.
Next month Nkana Golf Club in Kitwe will stage the Mopani Copper Mines-sponsored Zambia Open Championship where an appetising $250,000 is being dangled in prize money.
Lusaka will then follow suit in hosting another Zambia Open sponsored by Zambia Sugar later in the year before the Africa Golf Confederation championship comes to this country for the first time.
For starters, SCZ held a corporate luncheon hosted by Vice-President Guy Scott’s wife, Charlotte at Government House on Friday for the newly-created Zambia Closed Professional Golf Circuit.
This was aimed at sensitising the corporate world on the need to invest in local professional golfers to enable them churn out better results on the international stage.
SCZ has already secured a good sponsorship of K100,000 from Ferrimans Transport for the promotion of local professional golf.
I hope several other business houses will come on board and help SCZ in this noble cause.
Indeed such a pro-active role is what SCZ is supposed to be doing to help in jacking up sports standards in the country not just golf.
Hats off to SCZ for this progressive initiative. Email: malungaf@gmail.com