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Taking Ethiopia to 18 holes

Friday September 07 2012
haile

Haile Ghebreegziabher during the KCB East Africa Golf Tour at Muthaiga Golf Club in Nairobi, in February 2012. Photo/Chris Omollo

Landlocked Ethiopia with a population of 84 million is Africa’s second most populous country, after Nigeria. The country is only just beginning to recover from decades of terrible hardship.   

Ethiopia has invested heavily in athletics and football. Football fields and running tracks and fields can be seen in almost every district in the country’s capital Addis Ababa. The citizens also play volleyball, basketball and handball.

Golf is not high up on the Ethiopian agenda, but the country does have two golf courses, both located in the capital. Addis Ababa Golf Club has nine holes and there is a six-hole course at the British Embassy.

There are reports that an 18-hole course is planned in the Legetafo area, part of a huge development that includes a luxury hotel and conference centre.

Addis Ababa Golf Club almost fell off the Ethiopian map 15 years ago, largely because of lack of interest among the local community. Golf in Ethiopia, like it was in most of Africa about 50 years ago, is viewed as a sport for the elite or well to do.

Haile Ghebreegziabher, an Ethiopian professional golfer, has embarked on a mission to popularise the sport in his country, and improve the Addis Ababa golf course.

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Haile says nobody promotes golf in Ethiopia, and neighbouring countries have left them behind in the development of the sport.

“Ethiopia is such a large country with massive land and a population twice that of Kenya, but I have never understood why golf has been lagging so far behind,’’ says Haile.

The 53-year-old, who turned pro 24 years ago in Milan, Italy, has played in a number of European Challenge Tour events as well as in South Africa. He says he returned home 15 years ago to reconstruct the golf course.

In his one-man crusade to re-introduce Ethiopians to the world of golf, Haile has persuaded Castel Winery, a French wine company with a branch in Addis Ababa and looking to expand in East Africa, to support his efforts.

The company has appointed Haile to be its goodwill ambassador since he has been travelling a lot around East Africa to play in golf tournaments, particularly the KCB East Africa Tour.

A member of Kenya’s Professional Golfers Association (PGK), Haile says he is planning to get Castel to sponsor a big professional event where all pro golfers in East Africa will be invited to Addis Ababa, as one way of popularising the game in Ethiopia.

Haile says his golf has improved tremendously since he started participating in the KCB East Africa Tour and other events in the region.

"If you bring a major pro event to Ethiopia and publicise it, I can assure you within a few years golf will start picking up. And I believe with the support of companies like Castel Winery, golf will pick up very quickly.’’

Haile says Ethiopians have a lot to learn from their neighbour Kenya, which has more than 40 golf courses and over 5,000 golfers.

He has started an expansion programme of Addis Ababa Golf Club course to 18 holes. Haile is also preparing an amateur team to represent Ethiopia in the East Africa Challenge Cup in Bujumbura in Burundi in November.

Haile says there is a need to establish an Africa Zone Five Golf Federation to develop the game in Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, and Somalia.

The federation would bring those countries up to par with Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi. Haile says he will lobby for investors to venture into golf development in Ethiopia.

Meanwhile, Haile says he plans to participate in the KCB East Africa Tour events in 2013, as well as those in the Sunshine Tour in South Africa.

During this year’s KCB East Africa Tour grand finale at Nyali Golf and Country Club in Mombasa Kenya, which attracted a record 53 professionals from East Africa, Haile shot rounds of 80 and 78 and missed the cut narrowly.

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