Golfer Akena for USA event

Reigning Uganda Open champion Joseph Akena will travel to the United states next month Championship qualifiers due to take place in Washington.

Akena will play at the PB Dye Golf Club on July 17-19, 2025. The Lugazi golfer qualified on account of being ranked among the best 500 amateur golfers in the world.

“It will be a dream and honour to play in this tournament,” Akena said, shortly after receiving his visa from the US embassy on Monday.

“My golf journey continues to unravel in many unique, interesting ways and I hope that I can learn one or two things when competing against some of the best golfers in the world golf capital that is America,” the soft-spoken golfer added.

The 20-year-old Akena is a national team golfer who was part of the youthful side that dethroned Kenya at the Victoria Cup at Mt Kipipiri Golf Resort in March. He is somewhat saddened that his invite to the USA will deny him the chance to play in the Pearl of Africa Golf series due in Lugazi next month.

“I would have loved to play in the POA event,” Akena noted. “But in life, you can’t have your cake and eat it. I will miss POA. But I will be around for the Open.”

He thanked the R&A High Performance programme and the Uganda Golf Union leadership for the enabling environment that has seen his career soar.

“There is no doubt the union has greatly helped me in terms of inspirational advice, exposure and technical support and I can’t thank enough the national team manager Paul Habyarimana, the president Jackson Were and the entire executive,” he remarked.

Akena is tipped to be the favourite to win the Uganda Open crown seeing how the tournament will be played on a course where he learnt the game and honed his talent. Blessed with a tremendous short game, Akena had a terrific 2024 season in which he won a host of events, the climax of which was the Uganda Open.

He prevailed in the Kakira Open, Jinja Open, Lugazi Centenary, Godfrey Nsubuga Invitational, Mbale Open and the Kilelesi competition. The trip to America, Akena’s first ever, will be the fulfillment of a dream for a golfer whose journey in the game dates back to his days as a ball spotter when Mehta Golf Club, as it was known then, was a nine-hole course.

“I started work as a ball spotter when I was seven,” Akena recalled in his engagement with The Observer. “Thereafter as I grew up and developed muscles, I learnt how to become a caddy.”

He did admit that initially his parents didn’t embrace the idea of him playing golf. “They always wanted me to study,” Akena says.

“It was not easy to persuade them to allow me to play the game, but fortunately they are happy with me today and they continue to pray and support me in this journey.”

Akena learnt the game from Ronnie King Bukenya, the former club professional of Lugazi Hills Golf & Country Club and he is glad that his story (Akena’s) can be used as an inspiration for various other kids from the area.

“I like Anthony Otukei,” he says of the boy who caddied for him when he won the Uganda Open in Entebbe.

“That boy is going to go places. When I play him in Lugazi, I can’t make a mistake of giving him a stroke. And remember, we play off blue. He is a great talent and one who will win things in years to come. But there are many other gifted kids from Lugazi.”

Lugazi Golf Hills & Country Club is arguably the country’s most challenging course today given its hilly topography and vast greens. Playing Lugazi calls for golfers to be in top physical and mental shape, and it is no surprise that the course has produced back-to-back champions of the Uganda Open.

The man Akena replaced as Uganda Open champion, Nsubuga, will also play in the US Amateur Championship qualifiers. However, Nsubuga will tee off from July 14-17.