By FELIX MALUNGA –

THE 2015 Mopani Copper Mines/Redpath Mining Zambia Open Golf Championship has been over-subscribed with entries on the Sunshine Tour roster reaching 174 as of yesterday.
Tournament authorities, Sunshine Tour are now grappling with the problem of picking the final 114 on their list for the prestigious Mopani/Redpath Zambia Open to be staged at Nkana Golf Club in Kitwe next month.
Zambia Golf Union (ZGU) honorary secretary Kelly Munsaka attributed the overwhelming response from professional golfers on the Sunshine Tour to the attractive prize money being offered for the tournament.
Title sponsors, Mopani and Redpath are dangling a massive $300,000 (about K2.2 million) in prize money, making the Zambia Open tournament the richest in Africa outside South Africa.
Munsaka said in an interview in Kitwe yesterday that Zambia had now become an attractive destination for top foreign golfers and this was testimony of the good corporate support the local sport was receiving from the business community.
“Zambia has become a bigger golf destination in Africa. This just goes to show how much support we get from the corporate world and this shouldn’t go unnoticed,” he said.
Munsaka said with the amount of support golf was currently enjoying, the Zambian sport would soon become one of the most significant in the nation.
While Sunshine Tour will provide 114 golfers, ZGU has been allocated 10 slots for amateurs and another 10 for local professionals.
The title sponsors and ZGU have also been 10 extra slots for special invitees for the Zambia Open to be held April 23-26.