Stage set for this year’s Kenya Golf Trophy tourney
What you need to know:
- Mission Hills with 216 holes is accredited as the world’s largest golf facility by the Guinness Book of Records. It is usual the venue for the World Golf Championship.
- A total of 30 corporate organizations are sponsoring the event which is also expected to benefit the Junior Golf Foundation(JGF). Currently playing off handicap 14, Maina carded 40 points at Royal Nairobi to win the 2013 event.
Over 30 prizes will be at stake during this year’s Kenya Golf Trophy, the biggest one corporate tournament scheduled for next Friday at the par 71 Muthaiga Golf Club course.
As usual, the winner and runner up will win two Etihad Airways return tickets to any destination in the World. But tournament director Tob Cohen said other exciting prizes will include two nights stay and two rounds of golf in any of the 12 golf courses at the Mission Hills in China.
Mission Hills with 216 holes is accredited as the world’s largest golf facility by the Guinness Book of Records. It is usual the venue for the World Golf Championship.
The Golf architects who were involved in designing this masterpiece include Jack Nicklaus, Pete Dye, Greg Norman, Nick Faldo, Annika Sorenstam, Jose Maria Olazabal, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Justin Rose, Ian Poulter and David Leadbetter.
“Mission Hills is a place any golfer would want to visit live alone playing in one of its golf courses,’’ said Cohen. He said so far 180 players including last year’s winner Humphrey Maina of Kiambu Golf Club had by Monday listed their names to battle it out for the trophy plus some of the main prizes.
30 CORPORATE SPONSORS
A total of 30 corporate organizations are sponsoring the event which is also expected to benefit the Junior Golf Foundation(JGF). Currently playing off handicap 14, Maina carded 40 points at Royal Nairobi to win the 2013 event.
He flew to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, while the second placed player Snehal Patel of Muthaiga Golf Club, also playing off handicap 14, used his tickets to fly to New Delhi.
It will be interesting to see how both of them perform against a strong field this year which Muthaiga captain Bhavnish Chandaria currently of scratch, the Chairman of the Junior Golf Foundation Ashwin Gidoomal, a handicap one golfer and Tanwir Sodi playing of handicap five, all Muthaiga players.
The top four juniors in the JGF order of merit whose names are yet to be given by the JGF, will also be invited to compete in the tournament whose title sponsor this year is Orange Kenya while in addition to Etihad Airways other major sponsors will be Mercedes Benz, NAS Cuisine, Crown Paints.
The tournament director Cohen of Tobs Kenya Golf Safaris, Travel and Events said he was excited by the interest from all the sponsors and players.
“This year, thanks to the many sponsors, we have been able to introduce some real innovative surprises on and off the course, which will certainly change the way Golf Events are organised in Kenya in the future.” The entrance fee of per player remain Sh10.000 that includes a guest for the night party, which Cohen says it will be an event in itself.
