Kenya Golf Union to set new dates for two main events

Although the 2020 Kenya Amateur Golf Championship (KAGC) series, formerly Golfer of The Year remain cancelled, the Kenya Golf Union (KGU) will however stage its two major events, the Kenya Amateur Stroke Play and the Kenya Open Amateur Match play championship.

The winners of the two events, usually organised and run by the KGU, will get slots in the 2021 Magical Kenya Open. Initially the Match play championship had been scheduled for April 15 to 18 at Muthaiga Golf Club, but was postponed along with other KAGC series events due to Covid-19.

This means the union will have to look for suitable dates for the event won last year by Limuru Country Club’s Paul Muchangi, one of the six amateurs who will play in the 2020 Magical Kenya Open at Karen Country Club from November 12 to 15.

The Kenya Amateur Open Stroke Play Championship, whose 2019 edition was won by Tanzania’s Victor Joseph, is scheduled for October 15 to 17 at Royal Nairobi Golf Club.

Speaking during the KGU annual general meeting at Muthaiga where he eventually handed over the union’s leadership to Ben Omuodo of Royal, outgoing chairman Anthony Murage said; “On March 6, 2020, the Government of Kenya announced mandatory protocols that would be adopted across the country in order to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a result of this, the daily life of all Kenyans was and continues to be disrupted as the government implements these measures to curb the pandemic from further spread among its citizens. The golfing fraternity was not spared in the covid-19 mitigation process with club houses being completely closed for almost three months and many stakeholders (particularly our caddies) who rely on golf for their livelihood found themselves out of work."

Magical Kenya Open

The Government, through the Ministry of Health has since licensed club house restaurants to reopen, provided that they continuously adhere to a set of protocols signed off by the Ministry.

The union has also managed to find a temporary solution for caddies in the form of employing them as ball spotters across the golf clubs which gives a source of earning to some of them.

“Unfortunately, this matter is not within our control as the directive emanated from the Ministry of Health. Covid-19 presents the greatest challenge in our lifetime and I would urge that all golfers heed the directives that have been issued by the government.

We are continually engaging with the government with the prayer of a return to normalcy within our fraternity and we are confident that a solution which shall meet the approval of the Ministry of Health shall be arrived at in the not too distant future.

To our caddies, our heartfelt commiserations are with you as you endure through these hard times for yourselves and your families. I would also like to sincerely thank our golfers and member clubs that continue to provide monetary as well as non-monetary support to our caddies," he added.

Murage says it is unfortunate that the Magical Kenya Open shall not be admitting spectators to come and physically follow the international and local players as has been done in past years.

“We are however grateful to the Standard Media Group who are the broadcast partners for the Magical Kenya Open 2020 and who will be televising the event live on KTN. The tournament will also be broadcast live in over 290 million households worldwide as a result of the partnership between Kenya Open Golf Ltd and the European Tour."

On the other hand, Murage said the Union is constantly looking for opportunities to develop and expose talented golfers.

“It is for this reason that in 2019, we arranged for Samuel Njoroge, who was the top-ranked amateur golfer in Kenya to attend The Amateur Championship held in Ireland in July. Njoroge may not have made cut, but for a Kenyan golfer who had until then not been exposed to links golf against the crème de la crème of amateur golf in the world, he did us proud," Murage said.

The outgoing chairman says the union had intended to send another Kenyan this year, however due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, this was not possible.

Meanwhile back from Ireland, Njoroge went on to win the Kenya Amateur Golf Championship and he is one of the six amateur golfers slated to play in the Magical Kenya Open in November this year.

The Union also partnered with Namibia Breweries in 2019 to introduce the Kenyan weekend golfers to the Windhoek International Pairs.

Unlike the other tournaments where the Union focuses on the elite amateur golfers, this tournament targeted the weekend adult golfer who plays for fun and to keep fit.

The winning three pairs represented Kenya in the finals that were played in Portugal in November 2019. This year’s Windhoek International Pairs could not take place due to the pandemic, but it is hoped to resume next year.

Murage said the union was pleased that the Junior Golf Foundation (JGF) registration portal has gone through the testing phase and it is now fully operational.

Junior golfers can now register online from all over the country without the inconvenience of having to come to the Nairobi office. The portal has so far admitted over 150 juniors to JGF with multitudes more expected to continually join.
 
“It is with sadness that we learnt the passing away of Inder Talwar who was Chairman of the Union in 1986. Talwar. who passed on early this month in Mombasa, started his golf in Mombasa and later moved to Nairobi and was a member of Royal Nairobi Golf Club. He will be remembered as the first local Tournament Director of the Kenya Open," Muraige said.

He also paid great tribute to the 2017/2018 KGU chairman Richard Wanjalla, who was behind the project of KGU’s first major publication “Kenya through the lens of golf".