Developing young golfers

According to two golfers, Henry Mngomezulu (53) and Meshack Moutloatse (60), found practising at the KwaThema Sports Complex, there are a lot of young people in the township who are interested in the sport.

“We are always getting young people who see us practising on weekends and then come to join us.

“Most of them, however, get discouraged as there are no people to teach them.

“This is why we have now opted to help them voluntarily as we would love to see the sport growing in our area,” says Mngomezulu.

Moutloatse says: “It is so great seeing the amount of young people people gaining interest in the sport as we see them coming with balls and golf sticks.

“Their interest encourages us to officially start with the development though our challenge is lack of equipment for them.”

The golfers also share that the sad fact about local sports is that due to lack of funds and equipment, sport tends to die out in the long run in the township.

“Though there are some children who have an interest, when some of them see that they don’t go anywhere in terms of development, they either quit or go to other areas.

“However, currently on weekends we have about 10 children from the age of eight, who are coming to practise with us and we welcome them,” says Moutloatse.

Two cousins who recently joined these two senior golfers are Bheki Ndlovu (13) and Ntokozo Msiza (11) who say they just want to learn more about the sport.

“My brother, Thokozani Msiza (21), plays golf and he is the one who usually teaches and that is where our interested comes from.

“As of last month we started formally training with him and have been fortunate to get other golfers at the sports complex assisting us, which we are grateful for,” says Ntokozo.

Ndlovu adds that they love the sport and would like to see themselves grow in it and hopefully becoming professionals.