P100,000 reserved for hole in one
Kabelo Boranabi | Friday May 4, 2018 13:00
Orapa will host the inaugural edition of the annual international Orapa Diamond Golf Challenge at the Orapa Golf Course next week. The tournament is sponsored to the tune of P900,000 with over 100 professional and amateur golfers expected to battle it out. The golfers will do two rounds on the nine-hole golf course. A hole in one award stands at P100,000. Winners for both male and female categories will also be rewarded with double air tickets to either Windhoek or Durban from Gaborone.
The tournament will be in a stroke-play and a championship division format for professionals and other divisions will play a stable-ford format. Registration fee is P400 and the tournament is open to the public. Event coordinator, Tebatso Hule confirmed entries of golf professionals from neighbouring countries. “I am not in a position to mention names of individual golfers that have registered, but I can confirm we have entries from South Africa, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe,” he said.
Hule said through the game of golf they intend to promote sport tourism in the Boteti region and change the lives of the residents. “This tournament is aligned to the (Debswana) mine’s vision of Orapa today and Boteti tomorrow. We want this tournament to be a premier golfing event on the African calendar and we want it to benefit Boteti as a business hub and as well as a tourist destination,” Hule said.
He added the tournament would also add to sport development in the region. A week leading to the tournament, he said, they would have a children’s coaching clinic in Boteti.
“To create more interest for the children, we would also be using them as caddies at the tournament. We see them as the future of this tournament and we want them to grow with it.”
Orapa Golf Club president, Bakani Motlhabani, who is also Orapa, Letlhakane and Damtshaa Mines general manager, will host the golfers.
Motlhabani is also Botswana Golf Union (BGU) patron.
The main sponsors of the golf challenge are Debswana Diamond Mine, AON, Sesiro, Botswana Life, Barclays, Old Mutual and Air Namibia.
Other sponsors include KBL, Barloworld, Progressive Institute, Royal Court, VIPS, Garden Café, Demographix Communications, Duma FM and Weekend Post.