•ZAMBIA Open Organising Commitee (ZOOC) chairperson, Emmanuel Mutati (left) chats with Zambia Golf Union honorary secretary, Kelly Munsaka after a Press briefing at Nkana Golf Club in Kitwe yesterday. Picture by FELIX MALUNGA

By FELIX MALUNGA –
PREPARATIONS for the prestigious 2014 Mopani Copper Mines Zambia Open Golf Championship have swung into top gear with tournament organisers raising more than $300,000 (about K1.6 million) towards the staging of the event in Kitwe in May.
Zambia Open Organising Committee (ZOOC) chairperson, Emmanuel Mutati said his team received pledges in cash and kind amounting to more than $1 million (about K5.6 million) as at January 2014.
During yesterday’s Press briefing on the progress of the preparations at Nkana Golf Club, Mutati said more than 30 per cent of the amount had been honoured while most of the pledges were expected to be cleared by next month.
“We are cognisant of the different budgetary cycles for various companies and we are confident that that come March 2014 most of the pledges will have been honoured,” Mutati said.
He paid tribute to all sponsors who have shown interest and desire to partner with Nkana as the Kitwe club hosts this year’s championship.
Mutati said with attractive prizes staked by Mopani for deserving golfers, ZOOC would in the next few weeks be sending out invitations and getting entries from some of the best golfers around the globe for the May 12-18 championship.
The ZOOC chief said as Nkana Golf Club, they had the pride of the nation to uphold through the successful hosting of the 2014 Mopani Zambia Open Championship.
Mutati said since ZOOC set out on this journey in 2013, the tournament organisers had scored a number of successes in preparing for the event.
He said as of last month, 90 per cent of works on the course and clubhouse had been completed.
Among some of the major works undertaken at Nkana included the building of a 5.2 kilometre boundary fence and installation of an electric fence round the course.
Mutati said the club was under a 24-hour guard with armed security and sniffer dogs to ensure the safety of all visitors to Nkana.
He also said a total of 7.6 kilometre water pipes and control cable for the automated irrigation system around the course had been installed.
“A 3.2 million litre capacity distribution dam that is able to hold water for two days of continuous irrigation to the course has also been constructed with a pump house and manifolds,” Mutati said.
The definitions on the golf course had also been established, making the Nkana course outlook a magnificent masterpiece from the first to the 18th hole.
Works on the clubhouse were also almost complete with the construction of the first floor VIP Deck at the club underway and scheduled for completion in a few weeks.
Mutati said rehabilitation of the access road to the golf club and the car park had started and would be completed soon after the rains.
He said the progress made so far had given ZOOC the confidence that Nkana would be ready to stage Zambia’s biggest golfing spectacle.
Zambia Golf Union (ZGU) honorary secretary, Kelly Munsaka said the union was satisfied with the preparations at Nkana so far and kept a checklist on progress.
Munsaka said ZGU was confident that Nkana would give Zambia a tournament of excellence in May.