Emmanuel Ruterana will head to South Africa for the Sunshine tour with some confidence after a formidable show in the lucrative MTN monthly mug that was staged at Uganda’s Kitante golf course over the weekend.

Ruterana, Godfrey Mande and Patrick Anguyo all played one-under at the 72-par golf course to jointly top the January edition with 2966 points.

"I’m not very pleased with my performance because I think I have the potential to play a lot better than I did on Friday,” Ruterana said.

"But I will take the result as a confidence booster ahead of the real thing (sunshine tour),” the 26-year-old continued.

Apart from the fact that Rwanda’s BCR monthly mug was open to amateurs while the Uganda’s MTN mug is restricted to pros only, the two have a lot in common.

For both mugs, the event is a 12-month competition with four different circuits that are played on a quarterly basis.

The major difference however is; for the MTN mug, pros play for points and at the end of every circuit, the top six get to share a cash prize of Shs 3million (approximately Frw 1 million).

Deo Akope, the captain of the Uganda Professional Golfers Association (UPGA) also noted that the overall winner of the 2008 MTN monthly mug will be derived from a ranking ladder.

"At the end of the day, the golfer with most points will be crowned champion,” Akope explained.

This tournament could be Ruterana’s last before his departure to South Africa. The local ace is set to travel in the first week of february ahead of two subsidiary tournaments on the sunshine tour.

The tour is one of the best professional golf tours in the world and boasts of four events co-sanctioned by the European tour namely; HSBC Championship, Alfred Dunhill Championship, South Africa Airways Open and the famous Joburg Open.
Ends