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FUTURE STARS . . . The Zimbabwe junior national golf team (from left) Kieran Vincent, Stuart Krog, Travis Smith, Mbongeni Maphosa and Jack Allard

Takudzwa Chitsiga Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Junior Golf Association have named the team to represent the country at this year’s Curro South Africa Junior Championships at Langebaag Golf Estate in Cape Town, South Africa. The event is expected to attract over 120 junior players from all over the world.

Announcing the team, Brian Maphosa, the ZJGA president, said the team will feature Stuart Krog, Jack Allard, Mbongeni Maphosa, Kieran Vincent, Travis Smith, and Justin Kirsten while Melford Sibanda is the non-travelling reserve.

“The tournament is a 54-hole individual stroke-play over three days, that is 18-holes per day,” said Maphosa.
Zimbabwe has been allocated a slot for 10 players, but because of funding limitations, the ZJGA are sending only six players.

“The association, however, left the other four spots to be taken up by any interested party who met the tournament’s qualifying requirements.

“To be eligible a player can be either a boy or girl, born in 1995 or later. They must also be members of a golf club affiliated to a national golf federation recognised by the World Junior Golf Tournament Series.

“The players must at the time of submitting an entry have a handicap of 2 or better for boys and handicap 5 or better for Girls,” said Maphosa.

Maphosa explained that the ZJGA has an Order of Merit Ranking system used as the basis for selecting players for international tournaments.

“The selected six are the country’s top junior players and very promising young men,” Maphosa said.
The Curro South African Junior Championships were, until last year, known as the Kenako World Junior Series.

In the 2013 tournament one of the country’s players, Ben Follet Smith, was fourth in the tournament with scores of 72, 69 and 71.
He was two shots behind the overall winner Buitendag Jade of South Africa.

Ben went into the last round sharing the leadership with three other players — Samuel Schiff of Switzerland, Cameron Davis of Australia and HP Van der Merwe of South Africa.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s representative at the Jo’burg Open Ryan Cairns missed the cut after the first two rounds while Greg Bentley and Micky Hough have entered the pre-qualifiers of the Africa Open.

The pre-qualifiers are on at River Sun Country Club in Eastern Cape, South Africa.