By FELIX MALUNGA –

At Nkana Golf Club
ZAMBIA yesterday sliced Zimbabwe’s lead at the ongoing Africa Golf Confederation (AGC) President’s Cup in Kitwe by one shot as team captain Timothy Sondashi roared back in form with the best individual performance of the third round.
Trailing Zimbabwe by nine shots going into yesterday’s third round, the Zambian golfers put up a combined improved showing to stay eight strokes behind the pre-tournament favourites.
With 18 holes more to play, Zimbabwe are ahead on a gross score of 666 while Zambia remain second on 674, two strokes better than Kenya.
After a lackluster showing in the opening two rounds, Sondashi finally got his act together by firing level-par 73 to beat his Zimbabwean archrival, Robinson Chinhoi by four shots.
Sondashi finished strongly by sinking an eagle from the short rough on the 18th, erasing the two-over he was carrying from the 17th. He was ecstatic after sinking an eagle from more than 10m.
“I hit a bump and run using a gap wedge from the short rough. I was happy that the gamble I took resulted into an eagle. However, my scores could have been much better today. I missed a lot of putts. I’m sure I will be better tomorrow. I will work on my putting with the coach and I think all will be well. As a team, we just need to keep our heads down,” Sondashi said ahead of today’s crucial final round.
Aaron Simfukwe jnr, who dropped to second on the overall individual scores behind Zimbabwe’s Visitor Mapwanya, kept his nerve to finish two-over-par 75 and the good news was that he managed to beat his Zimbabwean rival, Tonderai Masunga by four strokes.
Overall, Mapwanya leads the chart on 219 all-square with Simfukwe, who is sandwiched by Zimbabweans, trailing on one-over-par 220, four strokes ahead of Masunga and a further shot back from Thembelani Vundla.
“It was not a bad day. I’m now on one over the whole tournament. We will try to work hard tomorrow. We won’t give up because we’ve no any other day. So we should just be firing,” Simfukwe said.
Peter Munyinya hit four-over-par 77 while Denmark Mulambo had five-over-par 78.
The stakes are high ahead of today’s final round with Zambia coach Patrick Mwendapole hoping his charges can maximise on Zimbabwean golfers’ errors and wrap up the AGC title on home soil.
“It now depends on how these guys wake up tomorrow. They (Zambian players) have stabilized now. It’s the last day, we’ve nothing to lose. The beauty is we will be playing with them (Zimbabwean). Our strategy today was to beat the Zimbabwean opponents and it worked to some extent,” Mwendapole said.
Zambia Golf Union (ZGU) honorary secretary, Kelly Munsaka urged the local team to foster team work and be consistent with their performance if Zambia could win what is now being called ‘the battle of Rhodesia’.
While Zimbabwe, Zambia and Kenya are leading the charge at the inaugural AGC President’s Cup, Malawi are fourth on 698, six strokes ahead of Namibia and Tanzania who tied for fifth.
Uganda is sixth on 711 with a runaway 81 shots better than rock-bottom Nigeria.