By FELIX MALUNGA-
THE 2014 Mopani Copper Mines Zambia Open Golf Championship will leave a legacy that will make the entire nation proud, the tournament organisers have said.
Zambia Open Organising Committee (ZOOC) chairperson, Emmanuel Mutati said the tournament would be the biggest in local history and would leave a legacy that all Zambians would be proud of.
Mutati said with the largest ever purse money of $250,000 (about K1.5 million) staked for deserving golfers, the Mopani Zambia Open had set a huge step towards development of the sport.
He said the massive financial support that the event was receiving from several corporate institutions was testimony that ZOOC would soon meet its $1 million budget.
Mutati said so far over $850,000 (about K5.3 million) had been raised and that more cheques were expected to roll in soon.
“This is the first such big international event to be held in Kitwe in many years. This event will leave a legacy that all of us will be proud of as Zambians,” he said.
The ZOOC chief encouraged local professional golfers to train harder and perform better this year to ensure most of the prize money remained in Zambia.
Mutati said Zambia had many talented golfers and good facilities like Nkana Golf Club and that there was no excuse for failure this year.
“This (prize money) must also be an inspiration to the Zambian golfers to train harder and even better so that we can keep most of this money in the country. We have the talent and facilities like Nkana Golf Club now and we have no excuse,” he said.
The Mopani Zambia Open, which is slated for May 12-18 at the refurbished Nkana Golf Club in Kitwe, has so far attracted 154 top class professionals who include three Zambians – Madalitso Muthiya, Dayne Moore and Michael Chiluba.
Brazilian, Adilson da Silva is the defending champion of the event to be preceded by two Pro-Ams.