If there is one thing Martin Kivumbi is good at, it is talking.
When he wins a golf game, he makes sure the entire world must know. It is who he is. Kivumbi is a lovely, affable and easy-going young man who is addicted to the game of golf.
Last Saturday at Lake Victoria Serena Golf Resort & Spa, Kivumbi claimed his biggest prize in the game when he destroyed the field to triumph in the Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup invitational tournament held at the par-72 course.
On a day of treacherous golf conditions, after a heavy morning downpour, it was Kivumbi who adjusted best to the rain-soaked course. In a tournament that was teed off via shot-gun, Kivumbi started on the 16th alongside former Lake Victoria Golf Resort & Spa captain Moses Matsiko, Arthur Gwaku and Olivia Ahumuza. Playing off handicap 23, Kivumbi was in inspired form.
“I played the best round of my life,” he told The Observer. “Honestly speaking, I got to a point when I wondered whether it was me playing or I was in some sort of dream.”
“In fact for the whole of next week, I will be holding clinics for golfers who want to learn how to play well in pressure situations,” Kivumbi joked.
He garnered a whooping 50 stableford points to hold off the challenges of teenager Banza Matsiko, who is the son of former Uganda Golf Union President Moses who played alongside him (Kivumbi), Hanif Moledina and Alexander Drey. “I have put in a lot of time to develop my game and I will not stop here,” Kivumbi remarked.
“In fact , this win will make me hungrier and more desirous to slash my handicap. Who knows, I want to give myself a chance to go as low as Group A.”
Kivumbi played one birdie, seven pars, six bogeys and two double-bogeys. His lone birdie was on the par-5 thirteenth. For his efforts, Kivumbi earned himself an all-expenses paid trip to a premium course in Antalya, Belek in Turkey in November for the final of the Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup.
Kivumbi’s partying after victory in Kigo continued throughout the weekend and he has remained everyone around him how to beat a competitive field to triumph in the Kigo shotgun competition.
“Golfers need to know because winning is a combination of factors that include hard work, dedication, patience, resilience and consistence, and I had to combine all that to be announced as the best on the podium,” Kivumbi, ever cheerful and grinning, said.
Because of a heavy downpour, all bunkers were ruled out of play on the day. Every golfer who entered a bunker was granted a non-penalty relief out of the sand trap. The preferred lie rule was also adopted after the showers. Kivumbi received his overall winners’ prize from Turkish Airlines General Manager Ali Ozdemir.
This year, the airline is holding 130 events in 83 countries, which makes it the farthest-reaching corporate social golf event in the world. In the side bets, Banza Matsiko won nearest to the pin for men while Nice Janda claimed it for the women. The best gross score prize went to Nick Snyman who shot a 78.