Rwanda national golf team will depart for Dar es Salaam on Friday ahead of this year’s East African Golf Challenge, which will be held at the 18-hole Gymkhana golf course in Dar es Salaam from August 22-26.

The regional annual tournament has attracted six countries namely; Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi and the hosts Tanzania.

The eight-man team and one reserve player, under the guidance of Jules Dusabe Mutesa are travelling four days earlier in order to have ample time to acclimatize to the Dar es Salaam weather as well as familiarise with the course.

The delegation is led by Kigali Golf Club captain Dr. Davis Kashaka, who also doubles as the president of East African Golf Union.

The team, which is captained by the experienced Leonard Nkrurunziza, also includes Rwanda’s 19-year-old number one amateur golf player Aloys Nsabimana.

Others are; Emmanuel Rutayisire, James Ndikumana, François Habimana, Celestin Nsanzuwere, Emmanuel Nkurunziza, Allan Niyonkuri, while Jean Claude Nzeyimana is the reserve.

Rwanda has made14 appearances and hosted the event three times in 2005, 2010 and 2015. The best performance for Rwanda was finishing as first runners up in 2005, while last year, the team finished in a disappointing fifth place in Ethiopia.

"Our target is to finish in the top two, which is why we are going four days earlier so as to practice and get used to the windy course. We have no excuse not to perform because we’ve had good preparations,” the team coach Dusabe told Times Sport on Thursday.

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