CAXIAS do Sul, Brazil, May 9 – Kenya’s Deaflympics Golf Coach Vincent Wang’ombe believes Isaac Makohkha can perform extremely well if he’s able replenish his concentration levels on the course.
Wan’gombe also believes Makokha has what it takes to hit the fairways and greens with requisite precision, “but then again he has to try and block out what happens in the background.”
“Makokha is such a good golfer. But we have come to ascertain that he is really distracted by people who walk in around him or people trying to communicate with him; and you see with this kind of competition the people who want to congratulate him revolve around his space and that definitely puts him off on sundry occasions.”
“Makokha has been in fine form. But he had two or three bad holes yesterday which saw the Kenya Matchplay Champion come out in 8th position.”
“Despite his few bad strokes, he (Makokha) is optimistic, happy and playing quite well. But one of the things we can do is to try and block out one of the things that happen around him.”
“And I guess because of his hearing impairment, his other senses are heightened especially his sight -more so when people move in his peripheral vision, he actually notices and that distracts him easily. It’s something I hope we can improve in future,” said the Coach.
–Misty Conditions–
Wang’ombe candidly admits that they started off bit slowly.
“The first day wasn’t so good. It was very cold in the morning yesterday, and in fact, I think that’s one of the reasons that led to Wario’s injury. When we were starting off it was a bit misty. The players were a bit stiff. They are not used to this cold weather. But when it warmed up, we saw Isaac especially beginning to play better.”
“With Gilbert, he’s still not very experienced in competition and not doing as well as we expected him to; but we had a good chat and he’s optimistic and all I have told him is that he needs to raise the bar higher and be in the top 16.”
Gilbert is now lying 20th but Coach Wang’ombe believes its possible for him to get to the top 16 and savor a chance play in the last round of the event.
-Alex Isaboke is reporting from Caxias do Sul, Brazil-
