The Mbarara Sports Club is not what one would call a thriving Golf Club, but it does gets a few rounds of play per day, some maintenance and has squash, tennis, darts, etc. It's got the usual rundown clubhouse with the prize for the smelliest urinal of any club in Uganda.
It's a 9 hole layout that you play twice, caddie fees 5k (mzungu price) and greens fees 3k. With only about 50 members (30 handicapped), so there is no army of caddies waiting for you to show up, so I had John the tractor driver show me around. It being the dry season, the greens were fast and not holding. Lots of trees are being planted in the middle of the course (John said 1000, but that's hard to believe). Tee boxes are bare, but the grass is green(ish) and gives decent lies.
your caddie will carry a flag, but he has no right to play the course (no caddie day), and joining would cost 100k UGX and 15k per month. They have a monthly mug and 2 tourneys per year.
There is a nice shade tree where you make the turn tho:
and admire the mural of a famous Mbararan golfer:
I think the signature hole, here is #8/17, a short, downhill par 4, which has OB surrounding the green as well a bunker with a big lip short/right, and rough on the right and left.
#5/14 is an intersting, but brutal par 3 (on the back side) where you have two large trees that block your shot to the green.
I guess one is supposed to hit a high ball over the trees, as threading this needle seems unlikely:
As is usual in African golf, one gets a free drop from termite mounds:
Mbarara course seems very much like the Tororo course, dry, flat and in need of TLC, not a golf destination in itself, but worth playing 9 if you are passing through.
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