Muthaiga hosts 15th leg of Barclays Golf Circuit
Bhavnish Chandaria at a past event at Muthaiga Golf Club on January 20, 2014. He is among those drawn at Muthaiga are Scratch golfer Bhavnish Chandaria, a national team player who is also Muthaiga’s vice chairman. FILE PHOTO | CHRIS OMOLLO |
What you need to know:
- The Muthaiga course at the moment is in an excellent condition.
- The event is likely to produce interesting scores depending on how the course is set for the event.
More than 250 golfers will be in action from Saturday at the par-71 Muthaiga Golf Club course for the 15th leg of the 2014/2015 Barclays Bank Golf Circuit.
Of the total field, 200 Muthaiga members will be vying for the six or more slots available to the club in the grand finale set for Karen Country on March 28.
The remaining players who include staff of Barclays and their guests will battle it out for prizes in the event which will start at 7am.
Members drawn include some of the club’s single figure handicap players who must return impressive scores to qualify.
This is because the format being used, Stableford off full handicaps, tends to favour double-digit handicap golfers.
The Muthaiga course at the moment is in an excellent condition and the event is likely to produce interesting scores depending on how the course is set for the event.
ELITE PLAYERS
Elite players vying for places in the Karen-bound team include newly-crowned Bhavnish Chandaria whose one-shot victory in last weekend’s Muthaiga Open earned him a place in the national team for the Africa Zone Six.
An off-scratch player, Chandaria is capable of firing one under par at Muthaiga any time.
To challenge him among the single figure players will be Njuguna Njugu, Mwai Mbuthia, Evans Vitisia, Kamau Thugge, John Gitonga, and Kumar Dhall among others.
The line-up for the staff prize has Zaheed Mustafa who has won a number of prizes at the beginning of the season before losing his winning touch. Others include Laban Omangi who won during the last event.
Meanwhile the ladies will be at Royal Nairobi for the two-day Eileen Belcher trophy which marks its 77th year. The prestigious event, formerly the Inter District Cup, has been held annually since 1937.
The Cup was presented by Eileen Belcher, then chairman of the Kenya Ladies Golf Union, to encourage match-play between the districts. The format has since changed and today, the competition is played in four Zones.
Each of the four zones is made up several clubs forming a team of three pairs and a reserve for a total of 84 ladies.
COMPETING ZONES
The clubs have been zoned as follows: The Red Zone comprises players from Windsor, Royal and Coast region. Yellow Zone has Vet Lab, Sigona and Central region, the Blue Zone has players from Karen, Limuru and Western region while the Green Zone which made a clean sweep in all the divisions last year, will field players from Muthaiga, Railway and Golf Park.
The main trophy will go for the A division players playing off handicap 12 and under while those in B will go for the Sinclair Quaich. The handicap 21 to 29 or C division will compete for the Palmer Trophy.
