Kenneth Bollo endures roller coaster ride in golf

Since the first edition of Kenya’s national Order of Merit golf series, popularly known as the Golfer Of The Year (Goty), was held in 1982, the last two events in the national calendar - the Uhuru Shield at Royal and the Nyali Open in Mombasa - have decided the winner.

In few occasions, eventual winners took the Goty title with several events yet to be played. During the 2013 season, Limuru’s John Karichu displayed excellent performances right from the start and was almost 100 points clear by the time the Uhuru Shield was being held that season. He won by a big margin and went on to claim the 2014 and 2015 titles.

But by the time last year’s Goty series was nearing the end, Karichu had lost his form but he had already opened a gap wide enough to earn him the title and a place in this year’s (2016) Barclays Kenya Open. The Goty champion and two winners of KGU’s major titles (Matchplay and Strokeplay Championships) earn automatic entry to the Kenya Open.

Royal Nairobi’s Kenneth Bollo replicated Karichu’s form in this year’s series. The 26-year-old Bollo, who started the season in a sparkling form, won the first four events (the Sigona Bowl, Mt Kenya Championship, Muthaiga Open, and Windsor Classic) in the 19-event series. He later added the Trans Nzoia Open and the Kabete Open titles to his name.

Halfway through the season, Bollo was at least 100 points clear ahead of his closest rival Jeff Kubwa of Muthaiga and defending champion Karichu. Like Karichu, Bollo, lost his form in between. His best performance after Kabete Open was a third-place finish in the Kenya Amateur Matchplay Championship, where he lost to eventual winner Sujan Shah of Sigona.

Bollo however picked up more points in most of the remaining events, including 13.50 and 17.50 points in the Uhuru Shield and Nyali Open respectively, to claim the Goty title with a total of 290 points, 30 points ahead of second-placed Kubwa (260) and third-placed Karichu (215).

YET TO BEAT RECORD

Incidentally, both the Kenya Open Matchplay and Strokeplay champions are yet to beat the late John Mucheru’s clean sweep. Mucheru achieved the feat in 1978, although the events were just over a dozen at the time. Kopan Timbe’s 11 wins out of 17 events saw him claim the Goty title in 2003 with a record score of 131 points, beating Wachira Mahihu’s previous record of 100 points.

The scores in most of the Goty events, including at Nyali Open which is the traditional grand finale of the season, have not been very impressive in the past five years. Some tournaments have been won with scores ranging from five to 15 over pars.

The Nyali Open, usually a 54-hole event, is one of the tournaments that have been won with poor scores, with professional Richard Ainley’s one under par score twice in 1997 and 2000 being the best performance so far.

But in this year’s edition of Nyali Open, youngster Edwin Mudanyi of Vet Lab Sports Club managed to reduce the margin by posting a one over par 214, thanks to his brilliant second round five under par 67 score.

It is probably the kind of scores players have been returning in these events that has forced KGU to introduce measures aimed at not just improving the scores generally, but also the standard of the game in the country. Next year, players will earn more points for wins while the number of bonus points for a player shooting under par scores has also been increased.

At the same time, at least the top 20 players will earn points in the Goty events which remain 19 altogether as was the case this year. There will be a big gap between the winner and the second-placed player in the Goty series where the winner will take home 100 points and 60 for the second-placed golfer.

This has been done deliberately to make the players compete for the title as opposed to be just picking up points.

Meanwhile, the 2017 season will begin on January 14 with the 54-hole Sigona Bowl at Sigona Golf Club.