Each of the 144 golfers who will fight for a share of US$2.7 million (equivalent of Sh348.3 million) prize fund in the 2026 Magical Kenya Open Golf Championship will contend with a tough-playing Karen Country Club course in Nairobi.
Those returning to the Karen Country Club course for this year’s tournament will find a markedly different course from the one that hosted the 2021 edition of the DP World Tour event.
For starters, the field of six Kenyan amateurs and 10 professionals, and the 128 competing professionals from the rest of the world will contend with a narrower and more challenging fairway, a course with two holes reduced from par five to par four (hole number two and hole number 15), and longer tees on some of the holes.
The championship, sponsored by the Kenyan government and presented by Absa Bank, turns 57 this year. It was first held in 1967.
The Karen Country Club course was established in 1937 on a former coffee estate belonging to Danish author Karen Blixen. It is normally played as a par 72 course but for the Kenya Open, it will be a par 70 course. The club has hosted the Kenya Open Golf Championship 12 times - in 1968, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2016, in 2019, and in 2021, but this year’s edition presents the biggest challenge to the players. When the tournament became part of the PGA European Tour in 2019, some changes were made to the course. Hole number three which is usually played as par five was changed to par four to make the course more challenging.
This year, the course is likely to be more challenging, considering the changes made to it. Holes like the par five-2nd hole will be played as par four, thus reducing the course to par 70.
There have been other changes elsewhere. Since the usual range at the club is shorter, Karen Country Club acquired a piece of land and constructed a new driving range and tee box at the nearby St Mary’s School Karen from where shuttles will take players back and forth. The parcel of land is more than 30 yards long and 50 yards wide, while the outfield is in a neighbouring property and allows a distance of just over 400 yards.
“In addition to a more intense, greens management programme, we have reshaped and enlarged some of the green side bunkers and improved the surface of several tee boxes, extended the 10th tee by around 30 yards and widened the 11th tee box to provide tighter teeing options,” Andy Watt who is chairman of the International Golf tournaments Committee told the Nation Sport yesterday.
South Africa’s Jacques Kruyswijk lifts the Magical Kenya Open title at Muthaiga Golf Club on February 23, 2025.
Photo credit: Chris Omollo | Nation Media Group
“We have also created a new ‘championship-only’ first tee, again extending the first by over 30 yards. This is on the lawn of Ngong room at Karen Country Club, and which will only be used by players in the Kenya Open and will revert to members for use afterwards. There has been some reshaping of rough, especially around the greens and green-side bunkers as well, unfortunately low levels of rainfall and relatively high transpiration rates caused by increased wind and heat has meant that some of these areas have developed well, while others have struggled,’’ Watt added.
This rearrangement of the course means local professionals who played the final round of the Sunshine Development Tour ( East Africa Swing) at Karen two weeks ago are likely to find the course totally different, and may need enough time to familiarize themselves with the new course nearer the time of the tournament.
But Watt said all the pros will have multiple opportunities to play on everything other than the back tees.
Meanwhile, Kenya Open Golf Limited chairman Patrick Obath, has said that past winners of the tournament, starting from 2019 when it became part of the DP World Tour, will play in this year’s tournament.
They are 2019 winner Guido Migliozzi from Italy, 2021 winner Justin Harding (South Africa), 2022 winner Ashun Wu from China, 2023 champion Jorge Campillo from Spain, 2024 winner Darius van Driel from the Netherlands, and 2025 winner Jacques Kruyswijk from South Africa.
Obath said their presence at this year’s competition will spice up the event, which this year is offering a prize fund of US$2.7 million (about Sh348,300,000).
