01 Dec 2013

Francistown Golf Club golfer, Roger Callender has won the one day Francistown Metropolitan golf tournament played in Francistown on November 30 after a tie break on 41 points with Gabriel Tjitjo of Selibe Phikwe golf club.

To get the best player of the two, the two golfers had to go for  sudden death play offs where Callender beat Tjitjo 5-3 to be crowned the winner of the first golfing activity in the year played at the course which also acted as a launching pad for other golf tournaments to come.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Metropolitan Botswana’s human resource manager,  Opelo Kwelagobe said Metropolitan Life Botswana has an obligation as a responsible corporate citizen and as such they were delighted to be associated with Francistown golf. She said they were confident that this would be the beginning of a long and enduring partnership.

 She added that their commitment to grassroots development was immense and the inclination of the Francistown Golf Club was aimed towards development to solicit growth of the sport among the young people so that Botswana can one day feature in international golf competitions where golfers pocket millions in prize money.

Kwelagobe further mentioned that young people are the future and the corporate world should invest in them because golf like other recognised sporting codes can offer economic opportunities and great rewards if taken seriously. Botswana, she explained, needed to have a comprehensive, well-coordinated and resourced junior development framework aimed at developing young golfers that would improve with time to become well established golfers.

“No sport will survive without a steady stream of juniors coming through development structures,” she stressed.

She challenged the local golf leaders to be accountable and transparent as this would help attract more sponsors with a firm knowledge that sponsorships would be utilised appropriately, adding that there was no substitute for corporate governance and it must be adopted if they wanted to be taken seriously.

Apart from the winner Callender and runner up Tjitjo, Tebogo Toteng of Metropolitan came third with Noah Majube coming fourth. The host, Francistown club in partnership with the tourney sponsor intend to turn the tournament into an annual event. Ends