Holiday hangover stalks the greens

For 82 years, the Muthaiga Golf Club has hosted a tournament that can only be described as punishment for golfers who have over-indulged during the Christmas holidays. How else would you describe a tournament that is played on the first weekend of the year in the scorching January sun?

This is what the Nairobi District Foursomes has been since 1931 (with the exception of the World War II years of 1942 to 1945).

It is a rude awakening for the elite golfers called upon to represent their clubs after hanging their golf clubs since the captain’s prize. Ditto for the new golf captain whose responsibility it is to round up the troops for the first of many “battles” in the year.

The Nairobi District Foursomes was the brainchild of R. D. England when he was the captain of Muthaiga Golf Club in 1930. He got the approval of Morrison Estates, which then owned the Muthaiga Golf club and he got them to donate the trophy for the competition.

There were three clubs invited by Muthaiga Golf Club to participate in the inaugural tournament: Nairobi Golf Club (now known as Royal Nairobi Golf Club), Kiambu Golf Club and Railway Golf Club. Each club sent four pairs of players to compete. The Muthaiga No. 1 team of R. D. England and W. V. Dickinson were the eventual winners.

The Nairobi District Foursomes and the Tannahill Shield are two events that employ the foursome match play form of play. These are also the two amateur events that you are likely to see spectators following their favourite teams.

There is something captivating in watching golfers trying to do their best in situations that they are forced into by their partners.

For those that are unfamiliar with the foursome match play form of play, it is a match in which two players play against two other players and each side plays one ball. The shots by the partners have to be played alternately.

Should the wrong partner make a stroke at the ball; that is if he makes a stroke two consecutive times in any particular hole, they lose the hole. That seldom happens in these competitions since the players are very keen on that particular rule.

There was one peculiar rules incidence last year that involved the pair of Francis Kimani and John Kariuki from Limuru Country Club, playing against a team from Vet Lab Sports Club.

On one of the holes, Kariuki’s tee shot was in a bush. Since they were not sure that they would be able to find the original ball, Francis played a provisional ball on the same hole. As the reliable former Kenya team captain is known to do, his tee shot was on the fairway.

If Kariuki’s shot was not found, or if the pair decided not to look for the original ball and continued with the ball that Kimani played, they would have been lying on the fairway for three.

However, their opponents had a prophet for a caddie. He not only found the original ball lying deep inside a bush, in his wisdom he knew that Francis could not play the ball as it lay. After he showed Kimani where the ball lay, he picked it up.

He knew that the pair of Kimani and Kariuki would declare the ball unplayable.

Kimani calmly requested the caddie to place the ball back where it lay and declared the ball unplayable and proceeded to play the original ball. The pair of Kimani and Kariuki played a five on the hole.

Their opponents played a four and thought that they had won. Kimani promptly told them of their one-stroke penalty due to the infraction by their prophet of a caddie and that meant that they also had a five. The hole was halved.

The Rules of Golf state that: “if, other than during search for a player’s ball, an opponent, his caddie or his equipment moves the ball, touches it purposely or causes it to move, except as otherwise provided in the Rules, the opponent incurs a penalty of one stroke.” Kimani and Kariuki won that particular match by one hole.

The pair of golfers that will win the Nairobi District Foursomes on behalf of their club, will be the golfers that had not hung their golf clubs for Christmas. Knowledge of the rules may save the golfers a stroke or two but ultimately, this is a tournament that requires good partnership and all season golfers.

For those that partied hard in December, the relentless January sun will add to your misery. Those that managed to play a few rounds in December, you stand a better chance in winning the 83rd version of Nairobi District Foursome.

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The author is a KGU Executive