Zimbabwe professional golfer Jack Allard produced the round of the day on Thursday at Royal Harare Golf Club with his three-under-par 69 sweeping him into the lead after close of the second round of the National Aids Council (NAC) sponsored 2021 HIV & Cancer Prevention Drive Pro-Am Golf Tournament.
The 25-year-old opened with a 72 before roaring to a one-stroke lead over first-round leader Benjamin Follet-Smith and Wingate-based Tonderai Masunga who are on a share of second with 142 for the tournament.
Allard got his scorecard into credit almost immediately with a birdie on the first and third holes and an eagle on the sixth hole.
He dropped his only two shots of the day on the 13th and 15th holes before keeping his card clean in the rest of the way home to turn in one-over 37.
Royal Harare based golfer Mohammad Mandhu, Ryan Cairns and Robson Saurombe are on a three-way tie on 144 for the tournament going into the third round tomorrow.
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.
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.
