KENYA JUNIORS TOO HOT TO HANDLE AT ALL AFRICA GIRLS TROPHY AND TRI-NATIONS BOYS TROPHY
Junior golfer Kellie Gachaga (left) receives a trophy from Junior Golf Foundation Trustee Christina Andersen at a past event. Gachaga was among the Kenyan juniors in action at Nyali Club.
By KGG REPORTER
The Kenya junior girls and boys teams emerged victorious in their respective categories at the inaugural All Africa Girls Trophy and the Tri-Nations Boys Trophy by massive margins at the picturesque 71-par Nyali Golf & Country Club in the Mombasa county.
The junior girls led from the start winning on a score of 748, (best three scores counting) 40 shots ahead of second place Zambia on 748. In the first round, scores from Kellie Gachage (78), Agnes Nyakio (83)and Naomi Wafula (76) took Kenya ahead by 12 shots. In the second round, Kellie Gachage shot 74 (3-over par), Agnes 81 and Naomi 80 to keep Kenya ahead by a smaller margin. It was the final round of Naomi Wafula 73 (2-over par), Serah Khanyereri 79 and Kellie Gachaga 84 that took them across the line..
The individual prize for the best girl was also won by Kenya, – Naomi Wafula, handicap 2 – with a margin of 7 shots on 229 (76,80,73) 16-over ahead of team mate Kellie Gachage (78,74,84) who tied second with Zambia’s Tina Nawa on 236 (79,75,82) 23-over par.
In the boys Tri-Nations Trophy, defending champions Zimbabwe and holders of this trophy since its inception three years ago suffered a huge defeat at the hands of a home-grown team. Kenya total score after four rounds was 59, a massive 21 shot ahead of Zimbabwe on 38 who played the same team from the past two editions.
The Kenyans, made up of Nyali golfers in the majority – bar one – led from start to finish. In the Singles Matchplay played on Friday, 21 August Kenya notched up a slender lead of one point over Zimbabwe with 17 points with Nigeria, playing in their first Tri-Nations winning 3 points from Kenya and Zimbabwe.
On the second day, the teams played two rounds of Foursomes Matchplay in the morning – Kenya won all their matches against Zimbabwe and Nigeria taking their total to 29 points, leaving Zimbabwe with much work to do in the afternoon’s Fourball Betterball trailing on 22 points.
With light fading fast, Kenya had to win as many as possible and took valuable points from Zimbabwe. At the end of three rounds, Kenya had 39 points, Zimbabw 29 and Nigeria 4.
The singles strokeplay was the last round, with a maximum of 4 points to be won by each of the six team players. Kenya managed 20 points, Zimbabwe 16 and Nigeria nil.
The Kenya junior boys team members were Adel Balala, Agil Is Haq, Akshay Chandaria (Windsor), Mathew Wahome, Tahir Mohamed, Temi Katemboh, Charles Farrar (Manager). ukoutletsonline ukoutletsonline