Chapman Golf Club has expressed the desire to see their flagship event the Chapman Grand Slam continue to grow following the successful staging of the 2024 edition of the competition last weekend.
The Grand Slam, which is one of the historical events in local amateur golf, was won by teenage star Keegan Shutt who beat 74 other contestants who took part in the event.
It was Shutt’s maiden Grand Slam victory after he shot rounds of 72 70 and 66 to finish the tournament on overall 8 – under par.
And for the first time the event featured women golfers competing with men.
Chapman’s Stephen Dzikiti who was the convener of the tournament said the hope was to see the event grow going into the future.
“I am hoping that we will have more ladies competing because this was the inaugural tournament for them and some didn’t know while some were not prepared,” Dzikiti told this publication.
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“And also our major drive in this tournament is bringing in junior golfers to the fore. I also hope we will have more golfers coming to compete in this tournament going into the future. This tournament must grow bigger in terms of numbers such that we can even introduce a ‘cut’ going into the final day.
“It is also my desire to see more sponsors coming on board so that we get to award more of the young players that compete. This is our biggest national event so it is important to us which is why you find that the whole leadership was in attendance. We start planning for it five months in advance so that everything can be smooth,” he said.
Some of the high-profile ladies who grace the include US-based golfer Margret Nyamukondiwa who tied for third place after grossing 222 for a 6 - over par final score as well as her longtime rival Danielle Bekker who grossed 229 to tie for seventh.
Miriam Masiya who is set to fly the country’s flag at the British Junior Golf Open also took part in the event and finished one stroke ahead of Bekker in sixth place.
Dzikiti was happy with the way the event went incident free.
"We are happy everything went well and there were no incidents to talk about. We had 74 players which is a good number for our golf and the young men and ladies who took part did very well.
“It used to be a men only event and this year we thought of bringing the ladies who would also compete with their male counterparts," he said.