Kenneth Bollo the man to beat at Churchill Cup

The Kenya Golf Union‘s golfer of the Year (Goty) series resumes this weekend with the Winston Churchill Cup at the par 72 Thika Sports Club course.

This is the first national event since the Africa Region Five Championship held in Swaziland two weeks ago.

The Winston Churchill Cup is sponsored by Mount Kenya University. The main event that has attracted 65 players will be played over 36-holes tomorrow and Sunday and is open to those playing off handicap 12 and under.

There will however be a subsidiary event open to the members which is set for 11am at the back nine while the first round of the main event is set for 8am.

Leading the field of 65 players in hunt for the Winston Churchill Cup plus some points towards the GOTY series, will be Royal Nairobi’s Kenneth Bollo (inset) who has been dominating the Goty series since December 2015. The plus two handicap Bollo claimed the last two events, the Uhuru Shield and Nyali Open in the 2015 series.

He then embarked on this year’s series with a victory in the Sigona Bowl at Sigona Golf Club in January and further triumphs at Nyeri (Mount Kenya Championship), Muthaiga Open, and the Windsor Classic.

He is therefore out for his fifth title this year and his seventh back-to-back.

The only players who can possible halt Bollo’s collection, are Muthaiga’s Jeff Kubwa, Kenya Railway Golf Club’s Alfred Nandwa, Mike Kisia from Vet Lab and home player Patrick Kingori.

Limuru’s John Karichu, who is the Goty defending champion, has not been in his best form as was evident during the Region Five Championship and some of the local events.

His club mate John Kariuki has also not shown his form which earned him the Kenya Amateur Open Stroke play Championship last year together with Vet Lab’s Edwin Mudanyi.

It will however be interesting to see how they perform at Thika.