Nyali’s Njuguna Ngugi follows the flight of his shot at the Limuru Country Club leg of the Safari Tour tournament.

By DANIELLA APIYO

Nyali Golf and Country Club’s Pro Golfer, Njuguna Ngugi, led his team of Limuru’s Jeff Macharia, Railway’s Edwin Guda and Thika’s Anthony Mwaura to victory at the Pro-Am event of the Limuru Country Club’s leg of the Safari Tour golf tournament today.

Njuguna’s team fended off a stiff challenge that was mounted by the team led by Ugandan Pro, Abbey Bagalana that came in second; and that of fellow Ugandan Pro, Philip Kasozi, which finished third. Abbey is making his Safari Tour debut this week while Philip is making his second appearance at the tournament – signaling the growing interest in the tournament across the region.

In the subsidiary members event, handicap 12 Limuru Country Club’s, Robert Barua emerged overall winner with 38 points while James Mbui, a handicap 12 from Limuru Country Club as well, emerged Men’s winner with 38 points. David Kitheka and Tim Njehia, both from Limuru, were runners-up in the Men’s category with 37 points each.

In the Ladies category, Laureen Gibson from Limuru emerged the winner with a total of 36 points while Grace Kimeria, from Limuru as well, was lady runner-up winner with 31 points. Gad Munyaka from Limuru and Sam Kairu from Karen were joint first-none winners with 20 points apiece while the Limuru trio of Kiragu Kimani (21 points), Peter Giathi (20 points) and Tim Njehia (20 points) emerged second-nine winners.

The main tournament proper of the third leg of the Tour tees off tomorrow at the same venue, bringing together over 40 golf professionals form Kenya and East Africa who will be playing for a stake of the KES. 1 Million total prize kitty.

The Safari Tour is an initiative of the Kenya Open Golf Limited aimed at preparing Kenyan pro golfers for the 2019 Kenya Open Golf Championship.

PGK Chairman Charan Thethy (left) with Prime Bank’s Director of Business Development Vijay Kantaria.

By AMANDA DAMARIS

A large field of 36 local professional golfers and 80 amateurs have confirmed participation at this year’s edition of Diani Beach Masters golf championships to be held at the par 72 Leisure Lodge Golf and Beach Resort in Diani, Kwale County between October 5 and 7.

This will be the second year in a row, that the professionals have been included in the old competition that initially only brought together amateur players.

The three-day competition has also attracted two more professionals from Zimbabwe, Mohammad Mandhu and Kayyam Mandhu and Tanzania amateur duo of Nuru Mollel and Jimmy Mollel

This year’s event will be one of the many “Road to Karen’’ events the pros are expected to play between now and March 2019. Like last year, the pros will play for a one million shillings purse, courtesy of Prime Bank, who on Wednesday handed over the sponsorship cheque of one million shillings to the Professional Golfers of Kenya (PGK) chairman Charan Thethy.

Speaking during the cheque hand-over ceremony at Prime Bank, Thethy thanked the bank for its continued support of the pros and the game of golf as a whole in the country, saying the sponsorship had come at the right time when the pros are preparing to qualify for next year’s Kenya Open.

“We are grateful to Prime Bank as well as Leisure Lodge for their generosity and commitment towards golf in Kenya both professional and amateur. This sponsorship will go a long way to support the local pros in their hunt for slots in the Kenya Open, whose 2019 edition will be part of the European Tour series,” said Thethy, after receiving the cheque from Prime Bank’s Director of Business Development Vijay Kantaria.

He said so far 36 professionals and 80 amateurs had by Wednesday listed their names in the event, which will be 54-holes for pros and 36 holes for amateurs.

The pros will have a cut after the end of the second round, where the top 20 pros and ties will battle it out for the cash prizes.

Those listed so far also include two Tanzanians Jimmy Mollel and the long-hitting Nuru Mollel of Dar es Salaam and Arusha Gymkhana Clubs as well as Zimbabwe’s Mohammed Mandhu and Kayyam Mandhu.

The locals include the winner of the Safari Tour first leg held at Nyali David Wakhu and long hitting Dismas Indiza.

Meanwhile, 34 Kenyan professionals are among a field of 100 already listed for this year’s Uganda Open set for September 26 to 29 at the century old Ntebbe Golf Club course in Uganda.

This is the biggest entry from an individual country in the event, which has attracted entries from Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Botswana and hosts Uganda.

As usual, the open marking its 75th anniversary, starts with the ladies section this weekend to be followed by the men’s championship next weekend.

The Kenyan pros heading to Uganda include Muthaiga’s Greg Snow, who won the second leg of the Safari Tour at Vet Lab on six under par, Indiza and Sigona’s Sujan Shah, who finished second and third, Sigona’s John Wangai, David Wakhu and Erick Ooko among many others.

In next week’s amateur event, nine leading Kenyan amateurs have been listed to vie for the amateur trophy.

The nine are Sylvester Luhombo, Mike Kisia from Vet Lab, John Kariuki, John Karichu and Paul Muchangi of Limuru, Railway’s Samuel Njoroge and George Felix, Paul Muhia of Nakuru and Muthaiga’s Mutahi Kibugu.