Dioniz Malinzi

Newly appointed National Sports Council (NSC) chairman Dioniz Malinzi said he is confident of Tanzania golf team’s success in the East Africa Challenge Golf to be held in Arusha in November.

Malinzi confirmed of the team’s prowess when interviewed during last Saturday’s Stanbic Challenge Golf staged at the Dar es Salaam Gymkhana Club.

The NSC boss, who used to be the Tanzania Golf Union chairman for the past three years, played down the prowess of the rest of the competing teams drawing optimism and over the home side boys.

Tanzania, which hosted the inaugural edition in 1999 at the Dar es Salaam Gymkhana Club course, losing to Kenya by a half point, has posted the only win in 2002 at Arusha Gymkhana Club in the 12-year history of the championship.

It is the side among the three traditional nations of the region to have posted the only win as Kenya are leading the pack with seven titles to their credit while Uganda, the holders, have bagged three titles.

Uganda will be travelling to Arusha focusing on winning a hat-trick of titles following their two back-to-back wins in Entebbe and Kigali last year.

Tanzania will be hosting the event for the fourth time in the history of the championship, the last time being in 2006 at Arusha Gymkhana Club.

The Ryder-cup formatted event has been elusive to Tanzania with huge disappointment twice when the home side failed to excel in 1999 and 2006.

Foursome vulnerability has been Tanzania team’s highly conspicuous handicap during the entire duration since inauguration of the championships.

How the Tanzania team, still yet to be selected, will have to cross this barrier remains to be seen with five weeks left before the showdown.

While dominant Kenyan team will be the team to beat, upcoming Ugandan side is not a pushover yet.

Golfers from Rwanda and Burundi, who are used to play on hilly courses, might find flat-fairwayed Arusha Gymkhana a new sanctuary to display their hidden ammunitions.

The composition of members of the Tanzania team is likely to be dominated by those from the northern Tanzania who have extensive course knowledge of the Arusha Gymkhana.

Backed by more than ten corporate sponsors, this year’s championship promises to be one of the best in terms of organization should the TGU officials make eleventh hour blunders.