FOUR KENYANS COULD JOIN SUNSHINE TOUR AS KCB LAUNCHES A SANCTIONED 2018 KCB KAREN MASTERS GOLF TOURNEY
KCB Group HR Manager Paul Russo,Tournament Director Andy Watt and Karen Club Chairman Lawrence Kiambi during the launch of KCB Karen Masters at Karen Golf Club.
By AMANDA DAMARIS
Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB)-sponsored Karen Masters Golf Tournament second edition slated for July 17 – 22 will run as a fully sanctioned Sunshine Tour event and with that comes a chance for four more Kenyans to join the tour.
Currently, only Stefan Andersen and one of the Kenyans who made the cut in this year’s Kenya Open Mohit Mediratta are participating in the Sunshine Tour. However, having the Karen Masters event as part of the tour has seen the organizers gift Kenya four more slot in the tour.
What stands between the golfers and the golden opportunity to play in the prestigious tour is the financial muscle to participate in the tour as most of the 20 legs of the tour are held in Southern Africa and most of the Kenya Professional golfers are self sponsored.
With the tour coming closer home to Karen Country Club, 32 local pros and four local amateurs will get a chance to fight for the Sh 15 million (150,000 usd) prize money against a field of more than 150 golfers.
“We are expecting a field of 156 golfers for the four day event. 100 of those will be drawn from the top ranking sunshine tour golfers, 32 slots will be filled by local professional golfers from Professional Golfers of Kenya (PGK) while 14 more slots will be filled by regional golfers invited by PGK. The remaining slots are for amateurs, four of whom will be locals,” explained tournament director Andy Watt.
PGK is currently holding a qualifier series dubbed ‘road to Karen’ that started in May 14 at the Vet Lab, won by Erick Ooko followed by a Sigona’s event won by CJ Wangai. The third of the five series event ended yesterday at Muthaiga and the final two will be played at Karen on June 25 and July 8.
The tournament will be preceded by a Pro-Am event on July 17 and 18 before the main event tees off on July 19. pandora charms uk pandora charms uk