The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Entebbe, Uganda | UGU MEDIA | Superlatives are about to be exhausted for Ronald Rugumayo. With a fifth straight professional title and yet again the lion’s share of the kitty, the message from him is ‘Catch Me If You Can.’ Quite clearly, Rugumayo today is competing against himself.
You have to go back to the Chairman’s Bell at Uganda Golf Club in mid-July to dig up the last time Rugumayo entered an event and didn’t win. Even then, he finished second to Grace Kasango after losing by a stroke. For Mayo, life today is a replica of DJ Khaled’s 2010 hit song “All I Do Is Win No Matter What.”
Playing along Nigerian Godwin Okoko and South Africa’s Slade Pickering, Rugumayo birdied the opening hole – his favourite hole of the Pearl of Africa Sunshine Development Tour – after three straight red scores – and the writing was on the wall from then on.
He nearly eagled the par 4 fifth after an imaginative approach duly set up a tap-in birdie. The Uganda Open and MTN Pro Tees champion was scarcely troubled all through despite some resilient fight from both Okoko and Pickering. The bogeys he picked on the 8th, 10th and 17th did little to threaten his grip on the title.
Okoko missed an eagle putt on the final hole that would have handed him outright ownership of second position. Instead, he had to settle for a tie in the runner-up position with Malawi’s Paul Adams who played the day’s best score of 66. The second-best Ugandans on the final leaderboard were David Kamulindwa and Abraham Ainamani, who finished tied for seventh.
Rugumayo will now head to Kigali for the Rwanda Open in possibly his finest ever form. Given his accuracy from tee to green and the strokes gained putting, the soft-spoken golfer will relish his chances in a tournament whose kitty is $50,000.
