PGK Chairman Riz Charania putts during a past tournament.

By CORRESPONDENT

Local professional golfers have a reason to smile after the announcement by Kenya Open Golf organizers that there will be a pre-qualifying tournament before the high profile event tees off next week at the Karen Club.

This is good news to the local players who missed the initial 22 slots allocated by the organizers as they have a high chance booking tickets to the 72-hole competition.

The announcement was made yesterday by tournament director Patrick Obath who noted that the pre-qualifier would be held at the Karen Club tomorrow and Friday.

“There will be a prequalifying tournament that is open to professionals registered with the national PGA of their country. Professionals wishing to participate must be nominated to participate by their national PGA. It will be played over 36 holes in the mornings on February 7 and 8 at the Karen Country Club,” said Obath.

The top five players after the two rounds will get direct entry to the 2013 Barclays Kenya Open.  In the event of a tie, then the tie will be decided by count back first over the two days then  if there is a tie then on the scores of the last day as per the normal count back rules.
Entries close on Wednesday 6th February at 12.00 noon Kenya time. maillotdefoots2018 maillotdefoots2018

Professional golfers from left Nicholas Rokoine, Simon Ngige and Riz Charania pose for a photo after receiving a sponsorship from KCB last week. They will be in action at the Jamii Telecom PGK Masters at Muthaiga.

By DONALD WELLINGTON

The third edition of the Jamii Telecom PGK Masters tees off this morning at the par 71 Muthaiga Golf course where a prize money of Sh1 million is at stake.

The 72-hole competition that is expected to end on Friday has attracted a total of 39 local professional golfers who will be battling out of the cash prizes available and the limited slots remaining for Kenya Open Golf Championships after the Professional Golfers of Kenya (PGK) announced that they would consider the winner of the tournament in the few slots for the Open to be held at Karen Club next week.

South Africa based Stephan Andersen will be part of the action, so is reigning golfer of the year David Opati who recently turned professional and is optimistic of making the Kenyan contingent at the Open championships.

Tournament’s reigning champion Nicholas Rokoine who won last year’s title on two under par 282, two shots better than his closest opponents, Riz Charania and Andersen, will be keen to defend his title, but it would certainly not be an easy feat this time.

Tournament director Elisha Kasuku predicts good scores at the tournament, going by the good conditions of the course and the way the pros have been playing recently.

“The fairway is pretty good because of the recently rains that we had and the greens are a bit slow, but they will be trimmed very early in the morning so that they can be a bit fast,” said Kasuku.

He added: “We expect to witness great scores at the tournament going by the recent form of the professional. The prize money is Sh1 million, but the overall winner will have the lion’s share of Sh190, 000.”

The tournament will also act as a warm-up event for the pros ahead of the Kenya Open event. sac michael kors sac michael kors