On a day of very prohibitive conditions, Irene Sekabembe held her nerve to emerge triumphant in the Entebbe leg of the NCBA Series at the par-71 course last weekend.
The MTN employee held off the challenges of 182 golfers to prevail on a day when the course endured a very heavy downpour that affected play.
‘I am really excited,’ a beaming Sekabembe said. ‘It has not been an easy journey but I needed all the patience in the world, discipline and determination to cope with the conditions to win the overall trophy,’ she added.
‘You have to be persistent to get what you want, and that is what I did.’ Sekabembe, who plays off handicap 48, returned 45 points to win on countback.
Other overall winners on the day were former national team golfer John Paul Basabose who shot 73 to emerge best in the male gross category. In the ladies, national team golfer Martha Babirye prevailed with a similar gross score.
NCBA golf tournaments are always synonymous with the Money Ball, or the Yellow Ball as others call it.
It was played by all entrants and the winning four-ball had Allan Akira, Esther Aganyira, Sulaiman Kamulegeya and Patrick M. Mugisha who played it superbly and returned a combined 42 points.
In the side bets, Edith Wamalwa and Moses Mukiibi claimed the men and women’s nearest-to-the-pin bragging rights while Martha Babirye and Michael Tumusiime smacked their drives immaculately to triumph in the Longest-Drive competition.
Other subsidiary winners were Ssubi Kiwanuka, Dr Twinemanzi Tumubweine, Sreerag Sasidharan, Aganyira and Lillian Koowe.
NCBA CEO Mark Muyobo congratulated Sekabembe upon his victory and reiterated that she would be joining Jinja winner James Abiria and Gabriel Amani Beau on the team headed to Nairobi.
‘This year, we are sponsoring the top three winners for an all-expense paid trip to Muthaiga Golf Club. However, 24 players have qualified to represent us in the regional finals this year. In Muthaiga, top players from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda will converge to compete for top honours.’
Muyobo reiterated that the bank would not relent in its support of the game because golf possesses the key attributes that the bank associates with.
Meanwhile the NCBA Group Director of Marketing, Communications and Citizenship Nelly Wainaina and Muyobo engaged in a tree-planting exercise with staff to champion environmental conservation and sustainability.
‘Our target is to plant 10 million trees by 2030 and so far, we are at 2 million. But since 2007, we have planted 9 million trees. We want to maintain this across all our markets in East Africa, which are Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania,’ Wainaina noted.
NCBA Muthaiga-bound golfers
Irene Sekabembe – Entebbe winner
James Abiria – Jinja winner
Gabriel Amani Beau – UGC winner
Gross NCBA Series Entebbe winners
M: John Paul Basabose – 73
W: Martha Babirye – 73