BORROWDALE Brooke-based professional Darren Bismark will be hoping to make it three out of three when he tees off in the pre-qualifying round at Chapman Golf Club this morning.
Report by Daniel Nhakaniso
Bismark has made the Golden Pilsner Zimbabwe Open main field through the pre-qualifying round on two previous occasions in 2011 and 2012.
He will however, face some stiff competition from other local and foreign golfers in the 80-man field who will battle it out for the eight available slots to make it into the 156-member field to play at Royal Harare Golf Club starting on Wednesday.
“It’s obviously going to be very tough because there are only eight slots available for about 80 golfers and you only have one round to make the cut instead of a normal tournament. So there’s no room for too many errors.
“From my experience from the previous pre-qualifiers, any score which is under-par or level par is good enough to make the cut for the Zimbabwe Open field. I have qualified from the pre-qualifier on two previous occasions, in 2011 and 2012 and hopefully I can make it three years in a roll tomorrow [today],” he said.
Bismark, who was attached to Chapman Golf Club during his amateur days before moving to Borrowdale Brooke, said his knowledge of the golf course would serve him well today.
“I enjoy playing at Chapman a lot, obviously because I played all my amateur golf there, hopefully this will work in my favour,” said Bismark.
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The field for the pre-qualifier is dominated by Zimbabwean professionals and amateurs who fell outside the qualifying criteria through the Zambezi Tour and Zimbabwe Golf Association (ZGA) Order of Merit Standings.
There will also be seven players from South Africa while Zambia, Kenya, South Korea and Portugal will field a single player each.
Some of the top names on the local circuit who will have to sneak through the pre-qualifier include Julius Kamalizeni, Peter Banda and Kayyman Mandhu, veteran Morgan Shumba and former Zimbabwe Professional Golfers (ZPGA) president AkilYousuf.
