EXCITING INCENTIVES IN FLAGSHIP GOLF EVENT: E500K INDIVIDUAL PRIZE IN KING’S CUP

MBABANE – Imagine half a million Emalangeni with just one shot.

It is raining money in this year’s instalment of the King’s Cup Golf Tournament. Ezulwini Golf and Country Club will once again be home to Eswatini’s flagship golf event in the period September 5-8, 2024. Tourism and Environmental Affairs Minister Jane Simelane, on behalf of the Patron of the King’s Cup Golf, His Majesty King Mswati III, recently launched the tournament. In a media briefing at the Hilton Garden Inn in Mbabane, yesterday, King’s Cup Golf Tournament Organising Committee senior member Vusi Dlamini shared exciting incentives and prizes for golfers.

They are headlined by a E500 000 hole-in-one prize on the 18th. It will be up for grabs on all days of the competition until it is claimed. In golf, a hole-in-one occurs when a ball hit from a tee finishes in the cup. It takes more than proficiency to hit it. Retired amateur golfer and former Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Works and Transport Evart Madlopha once achieved a hole-in-one and claimed a E50 000 cash prize, several years ago.

During the briefing, Dlamini stressed that the 2024 edition would be more inclusive, with indigenous Africans who include emaSwati having a fair opportunity to compete for a ‘bigger slice from the cake’. “The tournament will be a three-in-one, starting with a pre-qualifier. We have a field of 50 professionals and 80 per cent will be from countries that include Zambia, Zimbabwe and Uganda, among others. Up to 15 per cent of the golfers will be from Eswatini,” he said.

Professionals

In the main tournament, the professionals will be fighting for a bigger share from the whopping E1.2 million purse. The overall winner will net around E166 000. The prestigious tournament is included in the country’s calendar of activities. It is held at the Ezulwini Golf and Country Club, one of only two 18-hole courses in Eswatini. A product of the King’s 2004 Job Creation Summit, it attracts businesspeople from South Africa and around the region, and tends to pack out the hotels in Ezulwini. The tournament is also known for a lucrative purse of over E1 million.

Sponsors who have associated themselves with the tournament over the years, in no particular order, include Eswatini Royal Insurance Corporation (ESRIC), MTN Eswatini, Nedbank Eswatini, Eswatini Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (EPTC) and Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC). In yesterday’s media briefing, Dlamini said there would be two new sponsors and they would be unveiled in due course.

Visiting

Visiting golfer Hayden Griffiths from Durban, South Africa, emerged as the winner, last year. He was in the country, over a week ago, for the FNB Eswatini Golf Challenge and finished ranked 48th after uninspiring rounds of 72, 75 and 72. Despite not winning the tournament, Eswatini golfers fairly competed in the last instalment of the King’s Cup. Eswatini professional golfers won a combined E90 440. Winning the biggest chunk was James Pennington who got E28 500 after carding a combined score of 141. Meshack Zwane became E21 208 richer. The latter finished with a score of 142 over two days.Golfers, in separate interviews, welcomed the revised purse and hole-in-one incentive, while Eswatini Professional Golfers Association (EPGA) Secretary Sifiso ‘Mashayinkonjane’ Nhlengefwa’s phone rang unanswered.

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