UK golf star to compete in European Tour event in Tanzania

Dar es Salaam. At least 150 foreign golfers are expected to compete in the first edition of the Professional Golfers’ Association tournament - famous as the ‘PGA European Tour’ - to be staged in Tanzania from April 7 to 11 this year.

The event will be held at the Kili Golf course, a 1,040-acre estate situated between Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru, whereby professional golfers will compete in the stroke play. Among the professional golfers is Rick Shiels from Bolton in the United Kingdom, according to Tanzania Golf Union (TGU) chairman, Chriss Martin.

Martin said that, apart from being a golfer, Shiels is a British YouTuber, best known for his YouTube channel, Rick Shiels Golf.

He said in June 2019, his channel became the biggest golf channel on YouTube after surpassing 561,500 subscribers. As of January, 2022, he has over 2 million subscribers and his arrival will also promote Tanzania’s tourism. Shiels was born in Bolton, England, on July 3, 1986, and began playing golf at the Hart Common Golf Club in Westhoughton at the age of 11. He earned a diploma in golf studies at Myerscough College. Ten years after he began playing golf, he started working at Mere Golf and Country Club in Cheshire, England, after completing his PGA training and becoming a qualified pro.

He then worked at Trafford Golf Centre where, in 2011, he started his YouTube channel, posting various videos related to golf in an attempt to gain more customers.

Slowly, he began gaining traction, and in June 2020, he became the first golf blogger to amass 1 million subscribers. This will be history for the country to host a major golf tournament featuring only professional golfers of the world.

Tanzania becomes the fifth country in Africa to host the competition. Before the event, there will a one-day event held on April 5 known as ‘Pro/Am.’ Apart from the European golfers, the event will also feature golfers from America and Africa, who will gather in the country to contest for the first time.

The event has already been staged in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa. According to the information received by The Citizen, the golfers will be accompanied by their caddies and tacticians, in the event featuring more than 300 visitors. Martin said they are preparing for the event that will also see Tanzanian golfers compete for the first time.

The tournament began in Scotland. The first professionals were club makers and green-keepers who also taught golf to the wealthy men who could afford to play the game in those years.