Ronald Rumugayo, does that ring a bell? Most likely, until a couple of weeks ago, none of you would have heard that name. If we’re honest, neither had I. Well, it’s the name of the first Ugandan in history to make the cut in a DP World Tour tournament. He did it exactly ten days ago at the Magical Kenya Open. Quite a feat in a country that has 45 professionals, only four 18-hole courses and hardly any investment in the world of golf.
Rumugayo’s story is a ray of light and hope in these tumultuous times for golf and serves as inspiration and pride about the greatness of this sport. At Ten Golf we have had the opportunity to speak exclusively with the 31-year-old Ugandan who wants to be the beacon that guides his country’s golf a step further. A grin from ear to ear during the ninety-minute chat. He knows he has made history, but in something that goes beyond his own dreams, there is a whole country behind him.
“This is just the beginning, hopefully all this will serve as inspiration for my colleagues and for the children of my country,” says Ronald as soon as he picks up the phone, “I know that what happened last week can happen again. I’ve knocked down a wall and I have no intention of stopping. We’ll see how far I can get.”
Let’s take a step back. To understand and appreciate the feat achieved by Rumugayo, it is important to know where he comes from and the origin of his passion for golf. A fighter, a visionary. Where no one could ever imagine such a feat, he threw himself in with the conviction that it was possible. Stubborn in the best sense. A Ugandan Seve? Read on and draw your own conclusions.
Ronald was born on Innocents’ Day in 1992 in Foot Portal, a city in western Uganda with just over 60,000 inhabitants out of the 48 million who live in the country. Rumugayo is the youngest of eleven siblings! “from the same father and the same mother,” the Ugandan points out with amusement. A great football enthusiast and a true hooligan of Manchester United. Like any eight-year-old boy, the youngest of the Rumugayos wanted to be a footballer. That was his dream and he played for his local team, the Vulcano Football Club.
However, a television changed everything. When Ronald was ten years old, his older brother, who was then 34, came to their mother’s house, their father had died the previous year, with a television under his arm. He had won it in a tournament at the golf club where he usually worked as a caddie: “I was ten years old and until that moment I knew nothing about golf, but seeing my brother come in with a TV for the house was like a dream for me and from that moment I decided that golf would be what I would dedicate the rest of my life to. It sounds curious, but I think I’m not exaggerating”. Child’s play.
Pay attention to what comes next. Ronald’s family origins are very humble, they lived on a farm that was dedicated to the care of cows, selling milk and exploiting some plantations. The ten-year-old boy needed a golf club and balls, but they couldn’t afford it, so he used his imagination. He made his own golf clubs using yucca trunks and roots and used the avocados they planted on the farm as balls: “I did this for several months, every time I played I had to make quite a few “yucca clubs” because every few swings they would break, but the truth is that I enjoyed it a lot”. Imagine the scene of the Ugandan boy building the clubs and hitting the avocados. Brilliant.
“Six months later I asked my brother to take me to the club where he went from time to time. At eleven years old I started working as a caddie. Then, a player was going to get rid of a club and he gave it to me, that was my first club. A year later I played my first tournament, a caddie competition in which I was the youngest and I won. A month later I played the same tournament that my brother had won two years before and I also won it, but I was a junior and had no right to a prize”. He lacked the television, but the conviction grew and grew.
2005 arrived and in order to continue with his studies Ronald had to move to a boarding school in the area. Golf took a back seat because it was materially impossible for him to play. From thirteen to seventeen golf was parked, but the dream was still very much alive. So much so that in 2009, after finishing school at 17, Ronald told his mother that he wanted to try to dedicate himself to golf. Three months after leaving the boarding school was the qualifying tournament for the Ugandan national team: “I trained every day, morning, afternoon and night to get into the team and I did. However, Scotland was the destination for our first international tournament and I couldn’t travel. I couldn’t afford it. A few months later I did play in Botswana, it was my first international experience, but the truth is that I didn’t do very well”.
Today Ronald is the player with the most appearances and victories with the Ugandan national team. It hasn’t been a bed of roses, nor is it the case of the player with innate talent who is smashing all the records in lower categories and stands out very young despite all the obstacles. In fact, it’s not until 2017, at the age of 24, that Ronald manages to win the Uganda Open Amateur Championship. He did it in a tough playoff against his great rival, Otille Ronald, who was looking for his third victory. After that Rumugayo moved to Kampala, the capital, and turned professional a few weeks later, but until 2019 he couldn’t make his debut in his first DP World Tour international tournament. He spent three seasons playing local tournaments and once a year he managed to play the Kenya Open on the European Circuit.
Last year everything changed, especially the mentality. Ronald had been playing the tournament for several years, although he was always far from offering his best version. The lack of professional tournaments began to weigh on his path, although that didn’t stop him last year from becoming the first Ugandan to achieve a hole in one on the Circuit: “In the last edition I played very well but I didn’t go to compete, when I came back home I realised that I had to wait a year until I had another chance. I changed my mentality, it was vital to play with the best so I went to play in South Africa to be able to compete weekly with them on the Sunshine Tour. I needed competition rhythm and to face regularly everything that tournaments entail and to learn from other great players”. It seems that the recipe has worked.
And then came the Magical Kenya Open of 2024, in which Rumugayo appeared on lists as the 2901st player in the world ranking: “I came with the intention of winning the tournament, I believe that any player who steps onto the field should have the mentality of going for the tournament, then we’ll see, but you have to go in with the conviction that you can win. That’s what I did and this is something that has changed compared to previous years when perhaps I came more to learn. This year I came for everything, without limitations. If I then see that I can’t win then I try to give my best and take lessons. I think that if I had simply aimed to make the cut I probably wouldn’t have made it”. Dream big.
A first day over par was not encouraging, the second round was underway and Ronald needed to recover two strokes to get into a DP World Tour weekend for the first time, he admits that he was very nervous in the final holes:”I’ve been the best in my country for the last four years. Everyone is watching me, if I don’t do it, who will. I had a lot of pressure, a lot of nerves because I knew I wasn’t just playing for myself, I was doing it for Uganda, my country”. However, it is here where Rumugayo managed to turn the tables: “Pressure is normal. One thing I love about pressure is that it means there’s something good you’re fighting for. In this case it was clear that something incredible could be achieved and I tried to use it to my advantage. I managed to focus on my routine and played as I knew”, Ronald summarises.
We arrive at the green of the 18th hole on Friday 23rd February at Muthaiga Golf Club. The calculations are clear, if Ronald sinks the birdie putt he will play the weekend, if not the Ugandan dream will have to wait at least one more year: “At that moment my caddie came up to me from behind and said: -it’s just a putt, if it goes in fine and if not then nothing-, that also relieved me of pressure at the moment and the ball rolled perfectly to the hole. It could have not worked out, but finally it fell on our side”. Uganda smiles.
The euphoria breaks out, he has made it. Ronald is the first Ugandan in history to make the cut in the DP World Tour. Remembering that moment a week later he still gets emotional: “I’m speechless, but it’s not for me I promise you, it’s for what it means for my country, for the Ugandan players. Everyone is looking at my country and it’s a pride, it’s the moment to show the talent we have, it’s just the beginning”. The collective far above the individual: “I’ve always had the dream of inspiring my generation and changing the image of golf in my country and making others see that it can be done, that if I’ve done it they can. This is a ray of hope for my country. This milestone gives us a lot of confidence”, the Ugandan emphasises.
Ronald didn’t plan to return to Uganda, as after the tournament he was going straight to South Africa, but such a feat deserved to be celebrated: “I was received like a hero, I have no doubt that this is the best week of my life”. In the video call we can see this new reality of Ronald. More than fifteen times different people interrupted him to congratulate him. Blessed happy interruptions.
If you ask him about the future Ronald is clear: “One of my main goals has always been to be able to play regularly on the DP World Tour, but I am aware that it is my responsibility to put myself in that situation and earn the playing rights. If the circuit gives me an invitation to try, it would be spectacular and hopefully they can give me an invitation and prove my worth”. It wouldn’t be strange at all if the European Circuit is already working on some invitations for the national hero.
Ronald knows that the move he had to make last year is the best thing that could have happened to him: “Since I moved to South Africa I have improved a lot, but I still need to improve a lot more. In a few days I’m going back to South Africa and I’m doing it with the dream of being able to play at some point on the PGA Tour, and walking on the 18th hole of Augusta National with all the people shouting. My personal dream is that, but I really dream of something much bigger, I want my country to grow and impact the coming generations and that in a few years they are playing with the best in the world and can say that I was an inspiration for them”. The pride of the country as a flag.
If anyone is aware of the sports scene in his country, it is Rumugayo himself. Very complex situation in which being a professional is a tough task and in which many resources are lacking: “It’s very hard, we hardly have any tournaments, or enough prize money, we all fight for a prize pool of 3000USD. You can imagine that you can’t live off that. I am very grateful to all those who have supported me because the reality is that to play tournaments and of course to go to South Africa, I have had to ask for money. There are no government aids. I have not had any help. I started from scratch. I have never had a teacher. I have a mentor coach for the first time for three months now. I am convinced that we have the talent but we lack structure, to give you an idea, my club is over 100 years old and we don’t have a single Academy in the whole country”. Hopefully steps like the one Ronald took just ten days ago will help golf continue to grow in the country.
Nothing and no one will be able to stop the Ugandan boy who dreamed of a television and ended up inspiring a whole nation. Don’t forget his name, he is Ronald Rumugayo.
