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.

Royal Nairobi Golf Club team members during last year’s Tannahill Shield.

By DANIELLA APIYO AND AMANDA DAMARIS

The 98th edition of the Annual Tannahill Golf Tournament is set to take place from Tuesday to Sunday at the par 72 Royal Nairobi Golf Club.

Regarded as one of the most prestigious amateur golf events in sub–Saharan Africa, the tournament will bring together the best amateur players from nine teams from Nairobi, Mombasa, and Western region of Kenya to compete for the coveted Tannahill Shield.

“Unlike other golf events, the Tannahill Golf Tournament is played by teams, instead of individuals of amateur golfers from various clubs who are keen to showcase their golfing skills and team spirit whilst enjoying the company of other competing golfers,” notes Royal Nairobi’s golf captain Peter Mwangi.

The participating clubs this year are hosts Royal Nairobi Golf Club, Mombasa Golf Club, Muthaiga Golf Club, Western Kenya, Limuru Country Club, Kenya Railways Golf Club, Windsor Golf Hotel & Country Club, Sigona Golf Club and Karen Country Club.

“We have been in contact with all participating teams, and they are all excited and training hard so that they can win this coveted trophy,’ added the captain.

Muthaiga Golf Club have won the past two editions and the hosts will be keen to claim the title back.

There will be two curtain raiser tournaments before the main Tournament over the Easter weekend. Firstly, there will be a Junior Tannahill where youngsters from Vetlab Sports Club will try to defend the title they took from Royal Nairobi Golf Club last year. The Junior tournament will be held over two days, Tuesday, 4th and Wednesday, 5th April 2023. Vetlab beat the Royal juniors by three shots which led to a very closely contested finish.

The Senior Tannahill Tournament will also be held for the second time. The senior Tannahill is open to golfers over the age of 55 years. The senior tournament will be held on the morning of Good Friday April 7th where the seniors from Muthaiga Golf Club will try to defend the title they won last year. Muthaiga pipped the hosts RNGC to the title with Kenya Railways Golf club coming a close third.

The Tannahill tournament is the brainchild of Major Arthur Tannahill and was inaugurated in 1924 as an annual event when the general committee of the then Nairobi Golf Club invited teams representing Mombasa, Nyeri, Kiambu, Nakuru and Muthaiga to participate in the tournament. Every club plays one match against each of the other clubs, eight players a side and the format was four-ball-better-ball match play.

It is the only three-way competitive foursomes match play tournament in the world. The Foursomes is a competition format in which a team is composed of two players, and those two golfers alternate hitting the same ball sometimes called “alternate shot” format.

The tournament this year is sponsored by Jamii Telecommunications and supported by Crystal Rivers, Coca- Cola, EABL, St. John Ambulance, AAR, Yogo yogo, KNH and Farmers Choice.