Rwanda’s sole golf representative at the upcoming African Youth Games, Aaron Taylor Koonce has completed a three-day tour of Botswana ahead of the quedrennial event due May 22-31.
The 17 year old Koonce trained for a total of 20 hours at the Gaborone Golf Club during his stay in Gaborone, the host city of the African Youth Games.
The excited and anxious Koonce revealed that, “The course is flatter than the one in Kigali and the greens are faster and some of the holes are longer but it is very playable.”
Koonce who is a handicap 8 enjoyed the 18-hole course that he described as beautiful and positioned at a good location for the tournament and described the trees as being shorter.
He further added that, “If you happen to be in trouble from a bad shot, it is easier to recover. There is only a few water hazards which is less than the Kigali course so that shoudln’t be much of a problem.”
The Grade 11 student at Kigali International Community School reminisces that playing on the course before the tournament will give him a very big advantage ahead of the three-day (May 26-28) tournament because he knows the distances.
He also defined the bunkers as comprising of dense sand which means that, “I have to take a lower lofty club than I am used to, to get out of the bunkers but that shouldn’t be a problem. It is a minor adjustment.
Koonce is hopeful to finish with a medal for Rwanda but he knows that the competition from Zambia, South Africa and Zimbabwe will be tough as these are the strongest African nations in golf.
Golf is one of the 12 sporting disciplines that will represent Rwanda in Gaborone with the total number of athletes being 49 – 29 female and 20 male competing in athletics, basketball, boxing, cycling, fencing, karate, lawn tennis, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo and volleyball.
This is the first time that Rwanda will be competing at the continental youth event which will be a qualifying event for athletics, basketball and swimming to the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.