By DANIELLA APIYO AND AMANDA DAMARIS

Mombasa Golf Club for the first time in the history of the Tannahill Shield, managed a second place finish at the end of the 98^th edition of the competition that was held at the Royal Nairobi Golf Club during the Easter weekend.

The Coast lads finished second on 40 points, seven points behind winners Sigona Golf Club, while Muthaiga Golf Club was third on 36 points.

The club captain for the runners-up team, James Gitonga lauded the team’s effort in the four-days event, noting that prior to the competition, the best position they had finished in was a third spot which they realised in 2019.

“Other Tannahill teams should expect a stronger and competitive Mombasa team in 2024. We are working on building a junior team to represent the Coast team in various future tournaments, to ensure our juniors play at the highest level. We are on overdrive in organizing junior golf clinics in that regard,” Gitonga said.

He added: “Some of our top juniors we will rely on for success are Nathan Ng’weno, Fidel Wasike, Ethan Kinuthia, Alvin Ngaruiya and Garcia Maina.”

On paper, hosts Royal Nairobi Golf Club and multiple winners Muthaiga had been tipped as favourites to win the 98^th edition of the Tannahill Shield tournament at its historical venue, the par 72 course, but the story turned out to be different on the ground.

Sigona put up a brave fight in the final round, beating Karen Country Club and Windsor to clinch the coveted title 98th edition of the annual Tannahill Shield tournament that had been curtain raised by a junior tournament pitting the clubs at the same venue.

It was a brilliant performance from the Sigona team, which managed a total of 47 points. In the first round the team picked eight points, before garnering 15 points in the second round, then they managed 11 points in the third round and completed the campaign with 13 points on the fourth and final round.

During the final round which attracted a big crowd, Sigona beat Karen 5-3 and collected a maximum eight points from relegated bound Windsor for 11 points in the round and a grand total of 47 points, to beat the hot-charging Mombasa by seven points.

This was the first time in the history of the event Sigona was able to win out-rightly after tying with Vet Lab in 1974 and again with Muthaiga in 2013.

During their match against Karen, the Sigona pair of Akshay Chandaria and Suny Matharu beat Justus Njogu and Rufus Gichuki 9-8. Then Sam Kingori and Ngondo Kimemia halved with Liban Roba and Shahshwat Harish.

Deep Shah and Kush Mediratta won by one hole against Karen’s Gilbert Maina and Paul Kaguamba. Sigona though lost the last game where Amit Modi and Anand Chandarana lost 4-3 to Robert Keter and James Ngotho.

The Mombasa side which had a tough outing during Saturday afternoon’s third round, bounced back to form to beat Western 5-3 and Limuru 7-1 to bring their aggregate to 40 points. This is the first time Mombasa finished second in the tournament.

On the other hand, Western Kenya team tied third with defending champions Muthaiga on 36 points each, while hosts Royal were fifth on 29 points, one better than Limuru. Royal was only able to earn four points in the final round.

Railway, who picked 10 points in the last round, tied with Karen on 23 points as Windsor who got two points, finished with 17 points, and will be relegated, hence will miss next year’s tournament.

A total of nine teams participated in the tournament which was sponsored by Jamii Telecommunications.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 12th, 2023 at 7:32 PM and is filed under Golf News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.