BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
TWO decades after his tragic death at the age of 26, Zimbabwean golf legend Lewis Chitengwa continues to be immortalised, with a new golf tournament set to be hosted on the US collegiate golf circuit early next year in honour of his golfing legacy.
The late Chitengwa’s alma mater, University of Virginia has announced that they will host the inaugural Lewis Chitengwa Memorial in April at Birdwood Golf Course in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The new event is another befitting tribute in honour of the late Harare-born golf star, who is credited for inspiring a whole generation of black golfers not only in Zimbabwe, but in the region and beyond due to his exploits on the golf course.
The inaugural Lewis Chitengwa Memorial takes place April 11-12 and will form part of the Virginia Cavaliers’ 2021-2022 schedule which includes 10 regular-season team events in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
It will be the second high profile tournament held in the Zimbabwean’s honour after the Canadian Tour held the first event to celebrate his life in 2003, two years after his death.
Virginia men’s golf coach Bowen Sargent, said the new tournament was meant to honour the golfing legacy of the late Chitengwa, who was a standout player for the institution from 1995 to 1998.
“We are proud to announce the Lewis Chitengwa Memorial tournament and to honor his golfing legacy,” Sargent said in a statement on the university’s website.
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“The event in April will be the first major men’s competition on the redesigned Davis Love course at Birdwood. To have the tournament honor Lewis and all that he did for our sport will make for a very special event.”
Having learned the game from his father, Lewis Sr., an accomplished golf professional from the Wingate Golf Club in Harare, Lewis Jr. had competed on five different continents, representing Zimbabwe in both junior and men’s amateur events, by the time he reached his 18th birthday.
Chitengwa is famously remembered around the world for his three shot victory over Tiger Woods in the Orange Bowl World Junior Championship in Miami in December 1992.
“Lewie” as Chitengwa was affectionately known had gone into the final round tied with Woods and Gilberto Morales of Venezuela. The Zimbabwean’s even-par 71 proved enough to take the title from golf legend Woods, who went on to become the world’s number one ranked player.
Chitengwa won the Zimbabwe Amateur Championship three times and was the first black golfer to win the SA Amateur in 1993.
After winning the SA Amateur, Chitengwa was an instant hero to all who had suffered under apartheid in South Africa, and all who opposed the racist system.
After receiving scholarship offers from several universities in the US, Chitengwa enrolled at the University of Virginia, where he excelled both on the golf course and in the classroom.
Chitengwa was a two-time All-American at Virginia (1995, 1996) and earned All-ACC honours in 1995 when he was named the league’s rookie of the year.
He finished seventh at the 1996 NCAA Championships, at the time the best finish by a University of Virginia player in 50 years. During his four-year career he won two tournaments and recorded 17 top-10 finishes.
After graduating with a degree in African-American studies, Chitengwa turned professional in 1998 and was the first black Zimbabwean on the Buy.com Tour, the US PGA Tour’s developmental circuit now known as the Korn Ferry Tour.
He played two US PGA Tour events, the 1996 Vancouver Open and the 1999 St Jude Classic.
Chitengwa passed away on June 30, 2001 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, from a form of meningitis. At the time, he was competing in the Canadian Tour’s Edmonton Open. He became ill after Friday’s second round of competition, was admitted to the Alberta University Hospital on a Saturday and tragically passed away that afternoon.
Zimbabwe’s former world number one golfer Nick Price believes Chitengwa was destined to become a winner on the PGA Tour.
“I guarantee you, he would have been a tournament winner on the PGA Tour,” Price told Golf Digest. “He had determination and intensity, and he had a great short game. Guys with great short games win golf tournaments.”
In June of 2015, Chitengwa was posthumously inducted into the Southern African Golf Hall of Fame in South Africa.
