Safaricom Tour tees off at Nanyuki

The long awaited 2022 Safaricom Golf Tour, which was launched last weekend at the Ngong Racecourse’s Golf Park where the colourful launch included a nine-hole event, is finally on this weekend at Nanyuki Sports Club course in Laikipia County.

This weekend’s first leg of the 14 leg-series, which will eventually culminate in a grand finale at the Vipingo Ridge Golf Resort in August, has attracted a field of 102 who will be teeing off from 6.30am.

In its support to the Junior Golf Foundation’s effort to nurture and develop talent from the young age of five in every corner of the country, Safaricom has included a junior event in each of the 14 tournaments. The junior events will be played a day after Safaricom’s Corporate tournaments, hence soon after the corporate event on Saturday, the juniors to be drawn from different parts of the country will take over the course to battle it out for an array of prizes.

Entries for the junior event being coordinated by the JGF secretariat and its Mount Kenya regional representative Baldev Singh closes Friday at 6pm.

Back to Saturday's event, among those drawn include Richard Kabugi who last year emerged the winner, and will be all out to defend his title and book a slot for the grand finale in Vipingo. 

The top three players, overall winner, men and lady winner will qualify for the grand finale. To take on Kabugi among others, will be low handicapper Peter Rimui, while others will be Marlin Ndegwa, and Gabriel Miungi.

Meanwhile during the nine-hole Safaricom launch golf event, Bianca Mwangi had posted 26 points, to win by four points from men winner Patrick Makeckenzi while the ladies winner was Renee Njiraini on 20 points. 

Martin Maina finished second in the men’s section on 21 with Margaret Njoki on 19 points taking the runners-up prize in the ladies section. Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa emerged the staff winner on 20 points and Geoffrey Kiiru was the winner of the non -handicappers category after posting 43 points with Andrew Kathere taking the junior title on 17 points. Audrey Gachora emerged the best girl on 16 after beating Karyn Ombisi on countback. Jesse Waithaka was second in the boys category.

Speaking during the event, Sports ministry PS Joe Okudo who represented CS Amina Mohammed said the launch was another milestone in promoting the game of golf in the country and especially among the youth.

“I want to sincerely commend the good work being done by the Junior Golf Foundation in developing the game of golf, this will go a long way in increasing the nurturing and developing golf skills among the youth in the country," said Okudo. 

Okudo said it was worth to note that the game of golf had been pierced with a lot of misconceptions and misinterpretations. “Some people say that the sport is expensive and that it was a rich man’s game.  But today as we gather here, I am glad to note that interest and participation in golf has grown tremendously in Kenya and the perception towards the sport has changed,’’ added Okudo.

He said the government was committed to developing training and competition facilities for all sports including golf in order to make the sport accessible to everyone. He expressed his gratitude to Safaricom Foundation for sponsoring the event.

Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said Safaricom has been a big supporter of various golf initiatives across the country including CSR-based golf events, global events such as the Magical kenya Open and the Magical Ladies Open at Vipingo.

“The events have given our brand the opportunity to support communities and connect with our customers. We now have an opportunity to make golf accessible by focusing on the youth,’’ said Ndegwa.

He said Safaricom kicked off the partnership with JGF in October last year by coming together with other corporates whereby Safaricom signed an agreement to support the foundation with the training of coaches. This started with JGF bringing US Kids golf Foundation to train 40 coaches from across the country. 

“Today we are happy to take this partnership with JGF a notch higher by launching the Safaricom Golf Tour. To ensure the success and impact of the tour, we have set aside Sh100 million for the inaugural edition,’’ added the Safaricom boss.

Meanwhile lady golfers from all over Kenya will be converging on the par 72 Royal Nairobi Golf Club this weekend for the Kenya Ladies Golf Union (KLGU) Chairman’s (Sarah Hoare) Prize. 

The tournament which winds up the chairman’s term, has received tremendous support from various corporate sponsors including SBM Bank as the title sponsors, with others being Magical Kenya, Safaricom, EABL, Coca Cola, AAR Healthcare, Brookside Dairy, and Heritage Hotels. Sarah Hoare has served two years as Chair due to the Covid-19 pandemic which resulted in lady golfers permitting the sitting Council to serve another year in order to hold activities that were planned for year 2020.

It was however in 2021, which marked the return to golfing activities in the country, fully supported by the ladies golfing community across the country. 

The event will be played over two days, with the first round set for Friday morning where some of the ladies will then attend the KLGU AGM in the afternoon, while men play. Due to the high number of lady players, more ladies will play on Saturday along with a few invited guests.

The culmination of the event will be the presentation of prizes which will be held on Saturday evening. 

Away at the par 72 Limuru Country Club Course which was the venue this week of the sixth leg of the Safari Tour, a big field will be battling it out for the Chairman’s Prize hosted by Dr Caroline Wangari who served two terms.

The two-day event whose first round is on Friday, is being supported by a host of sponsors including Cellulant, Isuzu, Safaricom, The Tamarind Group, Galana, Goodlife, NCBA, Serena Hotels, CIC, Mayfair Insurance, EABL, Windsor Motors, Centum and KCB among many others, has attracted a huge field of over 200 players.

At the par 72 Thika Sports Club, over 200 players including 20 professionals from Kenya and Uganda will be battling it out during the Chairman’s prize being sponsored by Safaricom, Ketepa, Capwell Industries and friends of the Chairman.

Meanwhile, 100 players will be teeing off at Eldoret Golf Club also this weekend in the seventh leg of the “Road to Gleneagles" Johnnie Walker Golf Series where the top three teams will earn a place in the semi-finals and eventually the final where a fully paid trip to the iconic Gleneagles Golf Course in Scotland will be at stake.