Railway's John Wangai at a past Tusker Malt event

The Tusker Malt Golf Carnival enters its thirteenth leg at the 18 hole par 72 Karen Country Club on Saturday March 3, 2012.  The Carnival which kicked off atthe Kenya Railway Golf Club on September 22, 2011 aims to give extensive andprofessional experience to amateur golfers and greatly advance their expertiseas golfers.

TheKaren tournament, which is open to golfers from The Karen Country Club andTusker Malt’s Guests, has attracted a field of 180 Players who will teeoff at 8.30am to 9.30am. All eyes will no doubt be on Emmanuel Ageng’o handicap 22 and Ian Mwangi handicap 12, Ken Kubasu handicap 10 and George Muturi handicap 6, Peter Walsh handicap 10and Fred Lobo handicap 5.

Other top contestants include Anthony Gacheruhandicap 10 who pairs with Anthony Mogere handicap 6, Muthoni Muturi handicap20 and Wanjira Kireri handicap 13.

The Karen Country Club is situated 18.2 kilometers north ofNairobi and has some unique features that make a distinction of it from othergolfing clubs in Kenya. These features include the flowering shrubs, lakes andwetlands, outstanding indigenous trees and many fine sporting amenities.

The Captain Andy Watt says that the course is in greatcondition. “The greens are especially good and our members have recentlybeen commenting that the balls are really running making playing quiteeasy,” says Watt.

“In fact, we have witnessed very high scores the pastfew weeks of between 40 and 46 points for top winners. Therefore thisweekend’s game should witness very high scores,” Watt adds.

Other tournaments have already taken place at theKenya Railway, Machakos, Njoro, Kiambu, Eldoret, Nyanza, Limuru, Muthaiga,Sigona, Vet Lab, Nyali, Malindi and Thika Golf Clubs. The Royal Club hosts theCarnival on March 10, 2012.

TheGrand Finale will be at the Muthaiga Golf Club where the winners will win agolf trip to South Africa. Anthony Wachira, a civil engineer who has playedgolf for four years and accountant Sammy Ndung’u of Sigona Golf Club areso far, the top contestants with 26 points onthe first nine and 24 points on the second nine for a team score of 50 points.They are confident to get the top prize.

“Ndung’uand I have played in Muthaiga before and we will definitely practice therebefore the grand finale. We believe that we can win the grand prize,”says Wachira.

KarenCountry Club Captain Andy Watt points out that EABL and the club have a specialbond. “We are honored to host the eventand we are sure the players will enjoy especially because of the four ballbetter ball format which is different from the usual individual stablefordformat,” he concludes. air max air max

Sigona Golf Club's club house where the event was held at the weekend

By DISMAS ONYANGO

Karen’s Paul Kaguamba beat a large field of seasoned golfers during the sixteenth qualifying edition of the Safaricom Business Golf challenge at the par 72 Sigona Golf club over the weekend.

Kaguamba who is also the current Kenya Golf Union representative combined 16 and 23 on outward and inward respectively for a good score of 39 to emerge the overall winner out of over 130 golfers.
Paul wins a fully sponsored grand finale for the challenge at the magnificent Vipingo Golf Resort, North Coast on April 28th this year.
Playing off handicap 6,Kaguamba set off with a par on par 4,dropped two shots on No.2 par 4 but recovered with two strong birdies on 3rd and 4th par 3 and 5 respectively. He shot double bogey and a bogey on 5th and 6th respectively.
He recovered with a par, scratched on eighth hole par 4 and a shot dropped on 9th hole par 5 for an outward 16.

Two birdies on par 5 fifteenth and par 4 seventeenth holes spiced up Kaguamba’s second nine hitting seven strokes more than his outward. He hit back to back pars on the rest of the holes performing well on the stroke index 2, 4, 6 and 8, 12th, 13th, 16th and 18th respectively.
“Apparently Sigona is one of the best courses in the country but very tricky to place your balls on the fairway due to tall trees all over. I opted for a 3 iron on all my tee shots which enabled me avoid trees and I was always on with two. A maximum of two putts and an easy win it was. “Said Kaguamba after receiving his trophy and fully sponsored ticket to the grand finale by Safaricom Head of Enterprise Business unit Evans Nyaga.
Handicap 20 Ajay Patel shot the second best for the day after combining an outward 18 and inward 21 for 39 stable ford who was defeated by Paul on count back.
Patel shot pars on 2nd, 5th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 16th, 17th and 18th on par 4, par 3, par 5, par 3, par 4, par 4, par 4 and par 4 respectively. He dropped shots on the rest of the holes scratching on 9th and 13th.He received a Dell laptop and also qualifies for the grand finale.

Jaswinder Channa playing off handicap 25 came in third overall with 37 stable ford points and fourth placed Jainil shah playing off 12 shot 37 stable ford points.

Safaricom Caddies completion which was held on Friday was won by Handicap 2 Gakuo Ndirangu who received Nokia phone and credit worth ksh.5000.
Junior prize went to Jaini shah who hit 37 stable ford points. Longest drive went to Kabil Choda and Jane Chadu respectively on the men and ladies categories.

Nearest to the pin went to handicap 9 James Njeke, staff prize won by handicap 28 Nicholas Lelesit and the Guest winner was Francis Wahome from Royal. All the winners in all various categories received mobile phones, credit and laptops from Safaricom.

The seventeenth Qualifying edition heads to Kiambu golf club on Saturday 3rd march where over 100 golfers are expected to qualify from the venue. air max 97 air max 97