THE new African leg of the Vodacom Tour tees off with the R200000 Cock of the North tournament at Zambia’s Ndola Golf Club on the edge of the country’s Copperbelt on Thursday. A field of 81 professionals will be seeking the same springboard to success Welshman Ian Woosnam enjoyed after securing his maiden professional victory with a win in Zambia. The whole aim of the Africa leg is to uncover new golfing talent on the rest of the continent, and two Kenyan players Jacob Okello and Anil Shah will compete. The battleground will be Ndola Golf Club’s 18-hole layout, nine holes of which were designed by Robert Grimsdell and which opened for play in 1921. The course, which is littered with ant hills and where a local rule also allows for a free drop if a ball comes to rest amongst red ants, is a good balance of an easy start and hard finish. John Nkanda is one of the local professionals hunting success this week in a country where golf even plays second fiddle to chess, and in particular the 16-year-old Amon Simutowe, already an International Master and one of the best players in the world.