South Africa-based Zimbabwe professional golfer Benjamin Follet-Smith on Wednesday swept into an early lead of the National Aids Council (NAC) sponsored 2021 HIV & Cancer Prevention Drive Pro-Am Golf Tournament with a gritty 69 at Royal Harare Golf Club.
A bookmaker’s favourite ahead of the tournament, on the back of his victory at the 2019 RAM Cape Town Open, Follet-Smith a previous winner of the NAC tournament holds, holds a slender one shot overnight lead.
Wingate-based Tonderai Masunga sits in second place on the leaderboard after signing for 70.
Royal Harare based duo of Mohammad Mandhu and Ryan Cairns are within touching distance tied on 71 while Jack Allard and Robson Saurombe complete the top five tied on 72.
Fifty three golfers are battling for honours in the NAC-sponsored tournament which has set an ambitious target of raising US$100, 000 for HIV and Cancer prevention.
The fifth edition of the tournament comes hard on the heels of the Zimbabwe Ladies Open Strokeplay competition, held recently which was also sponsored by NAC.
The 2021 HIV & Cancer Prevention Drive Pro-Am Golf Tournament seeks to raise US$100, 000 with US$52,000 meant for KIDZCAN for implementation of childhood anti-cancer initiatives.
NAC Chief Executive Officer Dr Bernard Madzima told journalists on Monday that the tournament has become one of NAC’s annual fund-raising strategies, bringing together partners, stakeholders and the public in raising resources to support anti-cancer initiatives.
In Zimbabwe, over 6000 new cases of cancer are recorded each year, with cervical cancer alone accounting for 35% of all the cancers.
Lack of community awareness has been identified as one of the major challenges facing the nation in fighting cancer, as 80% of cancer patients present late at stages 3 and 4, resulting in increased premature deaths.
Other challenges include inadequate resources for cancer programmes and limited service coverage, leaving people in outlying areas with limited or without services at all.
Through resources raised by the previous golf tournaments, NAC has procured over 20 cervical cancer screening machines for identified health centres.
Zimbabwe’s need for resources has increased given the southern African country’s integration of COVID-19 and cancer, which are resource heavy diseases.
