By JAPHETH KAGONDU

Over the weekend Kevin Mabele from Kenya Air Force Golf Club and Noh Phintham of Windsor both qualified in the first round of the recently unveiled Safaricom Business Golf Challenge held at Windsor Golf Club. Mabele and Phintham emerged overall winner and first runner-up with a superb 41 points and 40 points respectively earning themselves a fully paid trip to play in the grand final at Vipingo Ridge, Mombasa 0n 28th April 2012.

Playing off handicap 2, Kevin Mabele displayed outstanding golf when he sunk four birdies to romp home with a total of 41 stable ford points beating over 144 golfers. Mabele, embarked on the outward nine with a par on the first hole, sunk birdies on hole three and five. He then pared hole six to nine with the exception of hole two and four where he dropped a shot each but still managed to return 19 points. At the inward nine, Mabele continued to display excellent form with three consecutive birdies on hole ten, twelve and thirteen. He then pared all the other holes for a total of impressive 22 points. Handicap 22, Noh Phintham combined 24 and 16 points for atotal of 40 points to take the second place beating John Kaniuru to the third position with 38 points. Home player, Kaniaru playing off handicap 5 also beat Anthony Kariuki and Handeep jandu on count back. Tom Simba combined 21 points on the first nine and 22 points at the back nine for a total of remarkable 42 points to take the guest winner prize. Longest drive-lady and longest drive men went to Nikhita Dodhia and David Nyagah respectively.

Nearest to the pin- man went to Azah Madhani while Veena Sennik took the nearest to pin-lady. Playing off handicap 18, Aman Pribhai carded 22 and 18 points for a total of 40 points to win the best junior prize. In the cardies competition Peter Irungu emerged top beating John Muchiri on count back while Julius Nyagah took the staff prize. However, it was a tough day for Evans Nyagah the Safaricom Head of Sales and Retention- Enterprise Business Unit after he took the piga mingi prize in his second time to play a complete 18 hole. From Nairobi, the challenge will move to Kisumu at the Nyanza Golf Club next weekend before proceeding to Kakamega, Thika and Nakuru next month.

During the month of October, the challenge will tour Kitale, Kericho and Eldoret. In November, the series will tour Nyali in Mombasa and Machakos before closing the year in Nairobi again.

Early next year, the Safaricom Business GolfChallenge will be staged at Muthaiga, Railway Golf Club Limuru and Nanyuki. From there, it will move to Sigona Golf Club then to Kiambu Golf Club.

The grand finals will be held in April 2012 at the Vipingo Golf Club where all qualifying golfers will converge to battle it out for the overall winner. air max damen air max damen

Tom Waiharo follows his tee shot in a past NIC Bank event.

By ENOCK NGOME

The NIC Bank golf day moves to the 9-hole, par-70 Nyanza Golf Club, on the shores of Lake Victoria, thisweekend in a tournament expected to attract over 120 golfers drawn from hosts Nyanza, Kakamega, Nandi and Kisii.

According to the host Captain, Tobias See, the golf course is in top condition despite the dry spell in the region.

“The weather conditions have not been very favorable, but our greens are in excellent condition” See said. “For the majority of the golfers at Nyanza, the golf course now minus the rough, is not much of a challenge, however, the slightly firmer greens will give everyone a challenge; stopping the golf ball on the short holes is going to require special skills.”

The event at Nyanza will be played off the amateur tee boxes in the popular stable-ford format with the earliest players teeing off just after 7am.

“We have a huge field and we do need to get golfers on the course early,” See added. “We expect the last players to tee off at about 1.30pm.” Golfers will find the opening hole, the dog-leg left par-five a little bit easier in the dry conditions but they will equally find the par-3 fourth and the par-3 seventh holes difficult. The short par-four sixth hole will play even shorter in the dry conditions as will the hardest hole on the golf course, the par-four third.

Players to watch in Nyanza include the Club champion George Oricho and handicap-6 golfer Peter Owino who has just returned from the annual Coast Open (Barry Cup) tournament in Mombasa. Captain See will be leading the team of George Oricho, Joseph Atito and David Balaka. NIC Bank will be represented by Head of Business, Tim Gitonga, Head of Card Business Michael Kinuthia, Kisumu Branch Service Delivery Manager Peter Mutai.

This is the second time NIC Bank has been to Nyanza Golf Club in its nationwide golf series aimed at introducing their new offerings to their potential customers. air max schwarz air max schwarz