One hundred golfers have registered to take part in the 2021 ‘Piga Mingi’ (PMC) golf amateur league which tees off on Saturday, September 4, at Falcon Golf and Country Club in Rwamagana, Eastern Province.
The annual golf tournament, which has been taking place every year since 2016, returns at a time when the government has cleared sports activities to resume after an 18-month hiatus.
One hundred golfers will take part in the competition, compared to 120 who competed in 2019. The league did not take place in 2020 due to covid-19.
The tournament is organized in a manner that golfers are put in groups that play between each other and the top ones proceed to the play-offs from which a winning golfer emerges.
Exciting return!
Eugene Murenjekha, one of the tournament organisers, described the return of the league as ‘exciting’ as golfers get set to be back in action this weekend.
"It’s very exciting of course, we are lucky that our sport is, by its own design, sort of social distancing because it’s not a contact sport. The risks are there but the Ministry of health and other authorities have put in place very strict guidelines that we must follow at both venues [Falcon and Kigali Golf Clubs], and we are clearly structured in terms of testing, social distancing, cleaning one’s ball and so forth,” Murenjekha told Weekend Sport.
Arthur Barigye (C) the 2019 winner flanked by Bheki Mthembu (L) the 2018 winner and Kennedy Murichu who won the 2017 edition. / Photo: Courtesy
The PMC League started with no sponsors and Murenjekha is confident the tournament will get even better in the future after organizers secured sponsorship from Kenya Airways and Britam insurance company.
Rwanda Coffee Limited are also one of the sponsors and help with financing of the community outreach programme.
The PMC League is normally held at the beginning of the year but due to Covid issues that affected all activities in 2020, 2021 and in fact still do, it’s happening in September.
"It’s very involved and exciting because everybody wants to be part of it. We usually use it to sort of generate excitement and get everybody back to the golf circle. With the excitement that it generates, we expect that a lot of golfers would get back on and start playing the game,” he said.
The league, which kicks off this Saturday, will bring together golfers from all walks of life, locals and foreigners, including business people and Rwandan golfers working in different sectors.
Golfers will play in groups and each group will have 11 members or so. They will be eliminating each between them until the top golfer is declared a champion at the end of November.
Murenjekha said that everything is in place and revealed that golfers are ready for the league.
A draw was held on Wednesday, September 1.
More than just a tournament
The PMC tournament, in its nature, goes beyond just a competition as golfers, at the centre of all, under their routine community outreach programme, make a commitment to support the community in need.
The last time the competition was held, they paid Mutuelle de Sante premiums for about 250 members of the community around the Kigali golf club.
"We have already put together Rwf 7 million in this year’s community outreach programme, as we prepare to do a community project to a selected place,” He said.
The winner of the three-month league will get a trophy and a jacket.