PORT LOUIS, Mauritius | Reunion continued their dominance into the final day, clinching the Africa Region IV Junior Golf Team Championship in Mauritius by a big margin.

The junior golfers from Reunion emerged best with a total of +28 with Kenya finishing as runners up at +59. Mauritius ended their campaign with +85 while Uganda was fourth at +109.

Tanzania and Madagascar occupied the last two slots with scores of +141 and +153 respectively.

Melliyal Schmitt of Reunion was also the most outstanding individual of the tournament with scores of 67, 70 and 72.

Uganda finishes 4th

Statistics don’t lie. Over 54 holes of competition, Team Uganda’s young golfers at the Africa Region IV Junior Team Championship in Mauritius finished fourth after an aggregate of +109. That total was a whopping 81 shots behind winners Reunion.

But for Banza Matsiko, Shaka Kariisa, Keisha Wiltshire Kagoro and Elizabeth Danelle Kawalya, there were lessons learnt.

Oddly, Uganda’s boys and girls played identical scores on the final day. Kagoro and Kariisa both holed out with 84s while Matsiko and Kawalya boxed 90s.

But most important above everything else is what the experience of playing at Tamarina Golf and Spa Resort will do for the careers of the four.

The national team coach Flavia Namakula admitted that the going had been tough in Mauritius. “I can say that it is not what everyone wanted for the kids,” she noted. “But what is useful to note is that lessons were learnt. Right now, we are building for the future and the lessons from Tamarina will stand us in good stead.”

Besides Namakula, the team was also represented by the President of the Africa Golf Confederation Johnson Omollo.

The deliberate involvement of the country’s most promising young golfers in competitive tournaments like the Africa Region IV Championship is a trend that President Jackson Were insists must be maintained if the Ugandan golf culture is to be elevated and rated by the game’s governing body R&A