A Malawian professional golfer who is also a member of Lilongwe Golf Club has won this year’s Seed-Co Lilongwe Open golf tournament.
The tournament took place at Lilongwe golf club starting from Friday 13 up to Sunday 15th November 2020.
The Seed-Co Lilongwe open golf tournament attracted foreign professional golfers and local golfers.
Paul Chidale the Malawian won the first prizes of US$2600 plus a trophy from Seed-Co Malawi Ltd and an additional K300,000 from Sawa Group.
Chidale beat Robson Chinoi from Zimbabwe with 7 shots in the final.
Speaking on Sunday after winning the tournament and receiving the prizes, Chidale said the tournament was tough because he was playing with many professional players who are very experienced and winning the tournament was not simple.
“I was in Nairobi playing with Chinoi we were practicing together in Nairobi and he was playing better than me so I had to come back here and practice to prepare for this tournament and it was really tough knowing that I will be playing with good players like Chinoi and Wemba. it was indeed very difficult for me to win this tournament but all in all I thank God that I have done it and I managed to win the tournament, and the other thing that made me to win this tournament is that I was playing at my home ground,” said Chidale.
In his remarks, Seed-co Managing Director Boyd Luwe said they are very happy to host the second edition of Seed-Co Lilongwe open golf tournament and also very happy for Chidale for winning such a big tournament.
“You know Seed-Co Lilongwe open golf tournament is an event that we have decided to do to support the growth of golf in the country. It is an event that we have invested heavily to celebrate 80 years of existence as a company, 80 years of supporting farmers and 80 years of great innovators. So we thought the best way to thank Malawians, to thank our farmers who buy our products was to invest some money in this golf tournament as you know golf is a game that is played across all age groups. So as Seed-co we are proud, this is investing back in the community. It is an event that we spent 20 Million Kwacha just to make sure that we thank Malawians,” said Luwe.
Professional Golfers Association of Malawi (PGAMW) President, retired Malawi army general Henry Odillo, commended Seed-Co Malawi Limited for the sponsorship saying it is the biggest tournament this year after the coronavirus pandemic affected the sport.
“You know the past three days have been a big success. We are extremely very happy for the results which have come out, the performance of the young people and especially our winner Paul Chidale. He has done a lot of good work and we are extremely very happy with his performance. Chidale will encourage and even inspire the other young players who are willing and very committed to improve their game of golf,” said Odillo.
He also noted that as PGA they are going to sustain a call from Golf Union of Malawi to develop up-and-coming stars.
“All players will certainly at some point give up playing or get injured, therefore let us focus on the young players and I appreciate the initiative which is coming up. We would like to see the young players playing the highest level golf in the country and as PGAMW we support the initiative and we are going to do our best to make sure that young players are well trained and supported,” said Odillo.
This year’s tournament was participated by local golfers as well those from other Countries including Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Out of 29 professional Golfers- 11 were Malawians, nine Zambians, seven Zimbabweans and two South Africans. Paul Chidale a Malawian won the tournament seconded by Zimbabwean Robson Chinoi and at number 3 a Zambian Sydney Wemba.
