Lina PG Tour to offer 4 top golfers for Dubai trip

HISTORY in making as top three professional golfers and one elite amateur golfer at the inaugural Lina Professional Golf Tour series will earn a coveted chance to feature in a Dubai tournament.

The four-day first-ever Lina PG Tour is set to tee off at the end of this month from February 29th and climax on March 3rd at the TPC Club course in Moshi, Kilimanjaro Region. The 72-hole stroke play tournament, organised by the Nkya family in collaboration with Tanzania Ladies Open (TLGU), will be exclusively for Tanzanian professionals and amateur golfers respectively.

The tournament has been introduced as part of commemorating the late Lina Said Nkya, who passed away on January 19, 2021 in Moshi. The late Lina apart from being a golf player, was also a golf leader at national and club levels.

TLGU vice-president, Ayne Magombe unveiled in Dar es Salaam on Thursday that preparations for the event are at top gear for the first Tanzania pros golf tour. She said TLGU and Nkya’s family are pleased to have such tour which is scheduled to be launched on February 28 and will feature a seminar and final registration of participants before tee-off day.

TLGU honorary treasurer Joyce Ndyetabura added that five Lina PG tour series will include that of the TPC battle, April 11 to 14 at the Sea Cliff Golf Resort and Spa course in Zanzibar and Arusha Gymkhana Club (AGC) from July 11 to 14 respectively.

Others are Moshi Gymkhana Club from September 26 to 29 and the grand finale that is scheduled to tee off at the Dar es Salaam Gymkhana Club (DGC) course later this year with top three pros and an amateur, who will excel in the five series will book tickets to Dubai.

“This esteemed tour uniting the nation’s pros and elite amateurs with handicap 5 and below, will be a Pro-Am battle, subsidiary and juniors’ categories in the showdown, I appeal for many golfers as much as possible to register to have a successful event,” urged Ndyetabura.

On behalf of the family Lina’s husband Said Nkya said currently the event is eligible for only local golfers.

“We have designed the tour to boost and develop the game in the country. We want to give our youths a platform to showcase their talents and at the same time gain important experience so that they can be able to compete at top international competitions. “We want more youths to take this game seriously and make it part of employment as they will offer hefty cash prizes to professional and elite amateurs to motivate them,” he said.

The late Lina was among the first lady golfers in Tanzania, a sport that was dominated by non-Tanzanian males. She broke this stigma on the green and encouraged dozens of Tanzanian women and Africans at large to partake in golf as a recreational and professional sport.