Financiers pull plug on Zim Open

PHILLIMON MHLANGA

Zimbabwe’s flagship golf tournament, Zim Open, will not run this year after more than half of the sponsors pulled out due to the worsening economic conditions, BT Sport can report.

About 24 sponsors had committed to bankroll this year’s tournament which was scheduled to run from August 26 to September 1, 2019 at the Royal Harare Golf Club. These include integrated financial services group Old Mutual which has been the title sponsor for this year’s tournament, Zimbabwe’s largest brewer, Delta Beverages, Tongaat Hulett, ZOL Zimbabwe and Sahwira Mukuru Events Management, among others.

But it has emerged that the majority of them pulled out citing tough economic conditions. The tournament first stalled in April this year following the introduction of interbank market in February this year.  It later suffered from further fiscal and monetary pressures after government last month banned the use of multi-currencies.

Since the introduction of the interbank market, the Zimbabwe dollar has since lost  value in less than five months with the official interbank rate this week reaching 1: 9 to the greenback. This means sponsors of the Zim Open had to revisit their budgets and
multiple their initial budgets by nine.

A letter from Zim Open Committee to sponsors, seen by BT Sport this week, showed financiers had pulled out from the 2019 edition indicating that they were no longer able to meet new budgets tabled for the rescheduled tournament by the Zimbabwe Open Committee forcing the organisers to cancel the tournament.

It was not immediately clear if the flagship golf tournament would be
back next year.

“In the light of the economic developments in the past few weeks, some 50% of our key sponsors have understandably deemed it inappropriate and unsustainable for them to proceed with their prior sponsorship commitments,” part of the Zim Open letter to all sponsors reads.

“The runaway exchange rate in relation to the sponsors’ category will necessitate a completely new budgeting and approval process. In the circumstances, we have no alternative but to forgo the 2019 Zimbabwe Open and hopefully resume when the economic environment improves in the near future.”

Zimbabwe Open Committee chairman Livingstone Gwata confirmed the tournament had been cancelled.

“Indeed, more than 50% of our key sponsors and partners indicated to us that they were grappling with pressures both economic and business and were no longer able and saw it inappropriate to squeeze in anything towards the sponsorship of Zim Open tournament this year,” Gwata said.

He added: “It has been tough for companies because the exchange rate has been going up to about 1:8 or 9, meaning budgets would now be multiplied by eight or nine times and companies were now struggling to fulfil the promised sponsorship commitments. They cited a lot of business pressures, so they said it was no longer appropriate for them to sponsor the Zim Open.   So, we had to cancel it [Zim Open].”

It’s not the first time the Zimbabwe Open golf tournament, which has been part of the Sunshine Tour, has been cancelled.  The Zim Open was once cancelled prior to the 2002 event due to economic instability in Zimbabwe after losing several sponsors. The tournament, was, however, resurrected in 2010.

Zim Open has been the richest professional golf event in Zimbabwe and one of the most prestigious tournaments on the Sunshine Tour schedule, a man’s professional golf tour in Southern Africa.

A number of professional golfers especially the South Africans have been dominating the Zimbabwe Open since 2010. It has also been attracting some of the world’s leading players as they used it as a warm up to the big money invitational golf events like the NedBank
Golf Challenge, Sun City Challenge, Vodacom Origins in South Africa,
AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, Investec Royal Swazi Open and Zanaco
Masters in Zambia.

Bryce Easton is the defending champion of Zim Open after winning the 2018 edition, becoming the 9th successive South African to win the tournament.

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