Team set to wind up training with a Leisure beach contest
CHRIS OMOLLO | NATION.
Kenya team player Collins Omondi follows the flight of his shot from a bunker during a training session at the Muthaiga practice range.
Training for Kenya’s golf team which was named two weeks ago for regional and global competitions is taking shape at the Royal Nairobi Golf Club with the squad of 10 players expected to wind up their practice at the Diani Beach Masters to be hosted by Leisure Lodge in Ukunda from October 9.
A team 12 golfers was named by the Kenya Golf Union (KGU) and handed over to the Golf Talent Foundation. But two of them – Stefan Andersen and Nadeem Alibhai, who are in school – will join the rest during the four-round trials from October 4 at a venue yet to be named.
Top eight to make team
Coach Ali Kimani said he has been checking courses in Muthaiga, Karen, Sigona and Royal though the final decision will be made later.
The top eight after the trial rounds will make the Kenya team to both the October 16-31 World Team Golf Championship in Argentina and the East Africa Challenge Cup in Kigali, Rwanda, in early November.
“What these players have been lacking is serious residential training and this is the way to go if we want to successfully defend the Africa Zone Six Championship next year,” said Kimani. He said the players had been undergoing vigorous training that includes running for about eight and a half kilometres daily and hitting between 200 and 250 balls at the driving range besides playing 18 holes daily.
“There has been a lot of improvement in general and I expect some good results in both events,” Kimani added.
“When we started some of the players were shooting an average of six over par but now most of them are shooting between one and two under par.’
Performance in Goty series
The top four players from the squad of 12 will play in Argentina while the remaining players will form the Rwanda-bound team.
The team was selected on the basis on performance in the ongoing KGU Golfer of the Year (Goty) series in which Thika’s Sullivan Muthugia is leading.
Some 73 teams, including eight from Africa, will be battling it out in the International Golf Federation-organised event last won by Scotland in Australia.
