Grade 10 pupil and golfer, Tokollo Dhlamini, is set to take Africa by storm when she takes to the golf course in the NCBA Golf Series in Nairobi, Kenya on Thursday.
Dhlamini, 16, from Thembisa Commerce & Entrepreneurship School of Specialisation, started playing competitive golf at the age of 12, after she was introduced to the sport by her mother Linaht Dhlamini, who worked at a golf club in Kempton Park.
The Thembisa Golf Club player said as a young black female golfer, she has encountered a lot of challenges along her journey of development.
“The challenges that I’ve been facing being a female black golfer is that we’ve been told that golf is not for us blacks. It is very rare to find a female playing golf, especially from the townships,” she said.
“We also don’t get support from sports personalities, because golf is known to be an expensive sport.”
Like any other young rising star in sport, the Thembisa-born star said her ultimate dream is to see more girls from the township making a breakthrough in the sport.
“My dream is to see more black girls playing golf. I would also like to develop more girls into playing the sport, because most people from the township don’t have information about the sport.”
Dhlamini previously won the Blair Atholl, Emfuleni and Vaal de Grace golf estates competitions. She also participated in the international tournament in 2018 in Malaysia, but that did not go as anticipated, after she fell ill due to hot weather conditions in that country.
In 2019, she showed off her golf skills when she took on President Cyril Ramaphosa in a demonstration mini-game during the State of the Nation proceedings.
The golf series in Kenya gets under way on Thursday and finishes on Friday at the Limuru Country Club, and the 16-year-old will look to come out victorious.
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