Golf seeders in Uganda

Sali lives in a cramped, shabby residential area, some of which have walls but no roofs. However, he can still practice privately and teach the children right in the alley behind the house. There, he put artificial grass and installed a net frame to block the ball. This is a gift set from a benefactor in the US who knows Sali through Instagram. "In the past, I was just looking for a place to practice, using a bed sheet to protect the clubhead and sometimes losing the ball. Now having a net is much more convenient," Sali said. And then, the simple accessory set in his alley became a "golf academy".

Sali is only available every Tuesday. He spent the whole day teaching children how to play golf, either in the alleyway or in elementary schools or residential areas. Sali carries a simple set of materials including an exercise mat and a stick. Each such session attracts dozens of children. The lesson plan is also simple - the teacher guides the theory, then teaches the students and then the students practice. The whole class claps when someone knocks on, and those who can't do it will be encouraged to do it again.

After the lesson, Sali often encourages: "Please come back when you want to swing the stick, anytime". Besides using words, he also used his pocket money to give a bottle of Coke for each re-appearance case.

Uganda has nearly 46 million people and is located in Central Africa, located between Kenya, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania. In Uganda, coffee is the number one export product, football is the national sport, cars are rare, and public transport is plentiful, including the motorbike taxi that Sali often uses. According to the World Bank, as of April 2020, 70% of Ugandans can only afford to spend on average for daily life at 3.2 USD.

The country's golf course has not yet reached the 20-course mark.

Sali is serving as the caddie and play coordinator at Lake Victoria Serena. That's where he got into golf, starting with a bag of clubs when he moved about a 15-minute walk from where he lived in October 2018.

When Sali first worked as a caddy, his knowledge of golf was very limited. And because of that, Sali lost her job when the stadium had to cut staff during Covid-19. As the eldest of four younger siblings, Sali cannot be unemployed. He turned to brick making to help his family. However, he still kept in mind that if he was taken back by Lake Victoria Serena, he would be someone who could not be ruled out. Then Sali self-taught to learn golf and then formed a remarkable swing technique thanks to her aptitude and body biology.

In February 2020, Sali opened an Instagram account, starting with a photo of him holding the finishing move, taken from the teeing ground. This post received 13 likes. In September of the same year, he posted a video of his swing. It got 16 "likes" and about 800 views.

Thanks to that, Sali happened to meet Nick Schiavi, a golf coach in Chicago. Watching Sali's videos and selfies, Schiavi discovered he was a talent to cultivate. The two sides exchange contact via Instagram almost every day, so that Chiavi fosters Sali's tactical techniques as well as methods of imparting golf knowledge for him to realize his vision.

By early 2021, with advice from Mr. Schiavi, Sali shifted the focus of the post to a training format. From there, his account spread to the Western world. And following the new direction, he made a breakthrough in the account development process with a post in June 2022.

At that time, Sali posted a slow-motion video of him swinging the bat with the ball on the ground in front of the attention and excitement of the elementary school children. The content was simple but attracted nearly 130,000 "likes", four times the average PGA Tour post on Instagram. And in just two days, it helped Sali's page grow from 2000 to 25,000 "followers".

Through her contributions to the golf community, Sali clearly does not want to become a player specializing in "winning for food" or building a personal reputation. He is passing this game on to the new generation in a challenging environment for himself and Uganda.

With that ambition, Sali initially achieved positive results, both in real life and online. Because besides the joy of getting to know golf in reality, Sali's Instagram page recently surpassed 70,000 followers.