Jeremy Ngunze Director at DTB in action during the DTB Golf tournament at Sigona Golf Club.

By DANIELLA APIYO AND AMANDA DAMARIS

Sigona’s home player Jiang Qi was crowned the winner of the first leg of the second edition of the Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) ‘Bank with us’ golf tournament held on Saturday at the par 72 Sigona Golf Club in Limuru, Kiambu County.

Playing off handicap 16 in division one, Mr. Qi, capitalised on his current best form and the course’s good condition to return an impressive total of 43 points to claim the title, beating his closest challenger Mr. Solomon Kanja on 41 points nett standings. This was courtesy of 21 points at the front nine and 22 points at the back nine.

“I would like to thank Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) for such a wonderful event. This is a great initiative to help support the growing golf in the country. I am equally delighted to emerge as the winner of the first tournament of this year’s DTB bank with us golf edition. The cause was really nice with good fairways that enabled me to play well to beat my competitors. I am looking forward to participating in more events like these as the bank continues to support sports and develop talents in the country.” said Jiang Qi

Meanwhile, playing off handicap 2, Atish Malde carded 42 points to claim the victory in the division 2 category, with another home golfer Akshay Chandaria claiming the Gross category title after returning a total of 73 points.

The Best first nine went to Paul Saahil Nanji, with the best second nine award going to Dhruv Shah, who garnered 22 and 23 points, respectively.

In the Longest Drive challenge, Hanif Tayabjee and Safina Madhani, all amateurs were the stars in the men and ladies’ categories respectively.  Meanwhile, playing off handicap 52, Catherine Mugane shone during the tournament by posting 40 points to clinch the DTB Staff prize with Emmanuel Tabone claiming the nearest to the pin award.

The tournament at Sigona attracted over 240 players from as far as Thika and Nairobi who participated in a four-ball tournament with various prizes ranging from golf bags to wheel-pull golf trollies being won.

Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) ‘Bank with us’ golf tournament aims to grow the sport as well as boost businesses by bringing services closer to their customers and offering networking opportunities. Last year the bank held five successful golf tournaments in Kakamega, Mombasa, Kericho, Kisumu and Eldoret that saw over 1,000 participants take part in.

Ingrid from Swedish School Nairobi follows her tee shot at the Windsor Golf Club

By DANIELLA APIYO AND AMANDA DAMARIS

Premier Academy and Kenton College dominated the first of three inter schools golf tournament played at the Windsor Country and golf club.

Kenton College, boasting of some of the best junior golfers took first position in the girls and boys under ten years and below category. Nine-year-old Adam Nesbitt scored 35 points to lead his teammates in occupying the top four positions. Ashley Gachora scored 40 points to finish second with Aria Dodhia scoring 41 and Mikhail Ladal scoring 44 points in fourth place. Kenton College managed 116 points as compared to 145 for Braeside Primary in second place and 151 points for Montessori in third.

Braeside primary school finished second with 145 cumulative points and Montessori Learning centre took the third position on the podium with 151 points. 14 schools entered golfers in this category.

The girls and boys 11-14 years category was the most competitive with Premier Academy, Braeburn and Kenton College posting good results. Tsevi soni from Premier Academy scored 72 points to win the category followed by Aidan Gachora of Kenton College and Amar Shah of Braeburn both with 75 points and Audrey Gachora in fourth place with 77 points.

This was an interesting category as after the first nine, Soni was in the lead with 33 points, a clear five shots ahead of teammate Yuvraj Rajput. Five players were tied for 39 points; Aidan Gachora from Kenton College, Audrey Gachora and Shuhan Peng from Rosslyn Academy, and Amar Shah and Navya Nagda from Braeburn Garden Estate. Premier Academy carried the day with 234 points overall with Kenton managing 249 and Rosslyn Academy collecting 257 points in third. An impressive 13 schools were represented in this category.

Premier Academy was once again the school to beat in the girls and boys15-18 years category that attracted 35 golfers from 9 schools. 16-year-old Chanelle Mwangi was in a class of her own scoring 75 points, but that was not enough for Rosslyn Academy to win the category. They had an overall score of 243 points, six points behind winners Premier Academy. Premier had Lee Kimathi scoring 78 in second place, Junaid Manji managing 79 points in fourth place and Mitansh Thacker scoring 80 in 5 th place.

“The tournament was good, the course is in very good condition but the greens were challenging. I just found the greens to be a bit slow but other than that, everything else was fine,” said Chanelle Mwangi.

Her teammate Hazel Kuria concurs, adding “the course was very good, it was very lush and very green but I had a rough time with the greens. I didn’t have the best drives personally; I was fading a bit on the drives but otherwise it was a solid day.”

The Swedish school was taking part for the first time, with most of their golfers on a short stint at the school from Sweden. They finished in ninth position in the girls and boys 15-18 years category.

“It is fun! It is always fun out here. I had different chats with people from Kenya when we did the rounds, so I enjoyed a lot. You get different perspectives of it all on course,” said 17-year-old Albin Fohlstedt who finished with a score of 98.

“One thing that is absolute is that it is much greener; we don’t really have this weather in Sweden, here there is more vegetation, more ups and downs, but all said, it was a really nice experience to play here,” added Ingrid Lindqvist who also played alongside Albin for the Swedish School.

NCBA Group has once again partnered with the Junior Golf Foundation in the schools’ tournaments, part of the junior golf development programme. NCBA has sponsored the programme to the tune of seven million shillings. The next inter schools tournament will be played in term two on the 26 th of May, also at the Windsor Golf and Country Club.