Golfer Marudu follows in her father's footsteps
Calistus Kolantsho | Friday October 26, 2018 12:32
The sight of women on the golf course back in the day was rare. As more and more women take up what is considered an elite sport, Nontsikelelo Trazinah Marudu’s name will be one of those etched on the annals of Botswana women’s golf.
Born at Butale village in the North East district, Marudu’s career has blossomed, thanks to her father, Joseph’s passion for the game.
“Nontsikelelo is my first name. It is a Xhosa name that means blessing. What happened is that my father left my pregnant mother to work in South Africa. Upon arrival in South Africa, he came across this beautiful name, liked it and gave it to me. I met the Trazinah name at Standard One,” she reveals. Marudu was born 45 years ago to Zuziwe Msunduswa and Joseph Marudu. She relocated to Gaborone at a young age. “I had a good upbringing in the village. When I was two years, my parents got married. I stayed in Senyawe, a good rural place. After my parents divorced, we moved in with my grandmother in Butale up until Standard Six. Despite the divorce, our parents brought us up together. They related well, even up to today,” she says.
Marudu came to Gaborone in 1986 to do her Standard Seven at Notwane Primary School before proceeding to Gaborone Secondary School (GSS) for her Form One the following year. She decided to take part in sport at GSS, although she had previous experience as a netballer and athlete back home in Butale.
“I was introduced to golf by my father. He was playing every weekend and I was his caddie. Athletics was difficult for me because of stiff competition at GSS. I then decided to focus on going with my father to the golf course. I also realised that with golf I was making money from being a caddie,” she says.
Marudu says one day, she saw Rachel Steward, a girl playing golf and was surprised. “I was like ‘wow’, even women can play. I decided to give it a try and my father agreed to get me some clubs.”
She was introduced to the club professional who taught her how to hold a club. Marudu fell in love with the sport immediately. She says she could hit the ball far.
She reveals that in 1988, a junior programme was introduced at the Gaborone Golf Club. By the time, Rachel had relocated overseas and Marudu was left to play with the boys.
“We played as juniors and we started having competitions and I was winning most of them. The biggest tournament was in 1989 sponsored by British Airways. I won it and beat all the boys I played with,” says Marudu.
In 1990, the young Marudu made her national team debut in the Triangular series.
“I was the youngest in the team and I was scared thinking if I was going to play well. I was 17 years and doing Form Four. Normally I would hit the ball far, which I still do today. I got all my holes on regulation and I won all my games,” she says.
She says after that she tried going back to school sport, but it was difficult for her due to time. She is a testament that golf is not necessarily for the elite.
“I stayed in a two-roomed house with my father. It did not have electricity, which meant we bought meat everyday from BBS Mall. We were using a pit latrine and fetched water from a public standpipe. It was normal for us,” she recalls. After completing Form Five in 1991, Marudu went for Tirelo Sechaba then straight to the University of Botswana (UB) for tertiary.
In 1993, she enrolled for pre entry Science course at UB. She also enrolled for Bachelor of Science in the same year. Marudu holds Bachelors Degree (BSc) in Microbiology and has a Masters Degree (MBA) with Mancosa.
Still in 1993, she gave birth to Bongani, her only child. Marudu says she started dominating golf and played every weekend after completing her studies at UB in 1997.
“I found people who were already there but every tournament, my name had to be there. My father was my full time coach,” she says. Marudu adds that as a teenager, she would not listen much to his instructions. But after sometime she started following her father’s directions.
“My father knew my potential and realised that I was not using half of it. Our relationship worked well and I won tournaments.”
In 2000, she made her debut at the All Africa Championship.
Marudu turned Pro in July 2012 because she wanted to focus on coaching. “I enrolled into the Professional Golf Association (PGA) coaching programme of South Africa, for a three-year period. The first few years I was busy because I was in Francistown but coming here in 2014, it became something else,” she says.
“Being a Pro golfer is a personal decision that one makes. I had a passion of imparting golf to young people.”
She says during her stay in Sowa she started a junior clinic and parents also started showing interest. The programme has around 23 young players. Marudu says together with her father they have started a company that targets government schools. “You need to be qualified in order to coach. There are nine of us who are qualified coaches. The best thing as a Tour Pro is to go outside the country. We do not have professional tournaments here,” says Marudu, who has been to 14 countries playing golf.
Marudu, a Health Safety Environment and Quality Manager at Puma Energy explains that as a woman golfer, she faces a mammoth task of attracting more women into the sport.