Junior Golfers during a recent action at Windsor Golf and Country Club.

By DANIELLA APIYO AND AMANDA DAMARIS

The East Africa Junior Golf Rankings has today announced that the 4^th Edition of its flagship tournament series will be held from Thursday 2nd April to Saturday 4th April 2026 at Windsor Golf Hotel & Country Club, Nairobi. The event will be a three-day, 54-hole competition, marking the programme’s most ambitious edition to date.

In a landmark decision, the EAJGR Board of Commissioners, at a meeting held on Monday 23rd March 2026, resolved to expand the programme’s eligibility criteria to include players aged 19 to 24 years (inclusive). This expansion is designed to accommodate university-level student-athletes and ensure a seamless development pathway from junior golf into young adult competition.

The 4th Edition will also welcome the United States International University (USIU- Africa) Varsity Golf Team to EAJGR events for the first time. USIU-Africa’s entry into the rankings programme represents a significant milestone in EAJGR’s mission to build competitive structures that bridge junior development and university-level sport.

With this development, Windsor Golf Hotel & Country Club now proudly serves as the home course for two neighbourhood institutions: Marurui Primary & Junior School and USIU-Africa. Players from both institutions will train together on a regular basis, creating a unique and powerful talent ecosystem that spans primary school through to university.

Speaking on the significance of the expansion, EAJGR Commissioner Maria Aloo said: “This is a transformative moment for Kenyan golf and for the sport across the entire East African region. By extending our rankings programme to include university-age players, we are creating a structure that no longer loses talented young golfers at the point where they enter higher education. The inclusion of USIU-Africa’s varsity team is just the beginning. Our ambition is to see inter-varsity golf teams established throughout East Africa, competing within the EAJGR framework. When universities begin to recruit and develop golfers as part of their sports programmes, we will have built a pipeline that can sustain itself — from the schoolyard to the fairway to the professional tour. That is the future we are building.”

This integrated approach is at the heart of the EAJGR vision: to identify, nurture, and develop golfing talent across East Africa and beyond, from the grassroots level through to competitive university sport and, ultimately, the professional game.