Top lady golfers for Royal action

Some of the country’s leading lady golfers will on Saturday converge on the par 72 Royal Nairobi Golf Club course for the Kenya Ladies Golf Union Chairman’s Prize.

At least 145 ladies and 80 men, the latter who will play in the afternoon’s subsidiary event, were drawn in the event which winds up KLGU chairlady Mary Chebukati’s two-year term in office.

After the tournament, which is sponsored by Kenya Pipeline and Prime Bank, among others, there will be an annual general meeting of the KLGU to elect a new council to serve the ladies union for the next year.

During her term, Chebukati, formerly of Mombasa’s Nyali Golf and Country Club, saw all the KLGU and KLGU sanctioned events receive unprecedented record turn outs.

Chebukati also led the Kenya’s ladies’ team to a fifth place in the 2016 AACT Championship in  Tunisia.

Those who are drawn include legendary Florence Maina and several former KLGU heads.

The format is medal which favours those in the single figure handicap bracket.

These include Kiambu’s Joyce Wanjiru (5), Wanjiru Karume (8), Golf Park’s Agnes Nyakio (5), Mwongeli Nzioka (9) from Limuru and Nakuru’s Esther Karuga (9) and Shiro Kaime (8). Being a member and most familiar with the course, Maina is likely to start as hot favourite.

Tee off is 7.44am for the ladies, while the men’s subsidiary event to starts at noon.

A lot of work has been done to make sure that the par 72 Royal course is ready for the Chairman’s Prize, the second tournament to be staged at the club this year after the Ladies Invitation two weeks ago.

At Thika Sports Club, a huge field of over 250 players was drawn to battle it out for some of the top prizes in the Johnnie Walker Golf Series where teeing off is set from 6.50am.

All the leading golfers at Thika such as David Matano, Patrick Kingori, Simon Ndungu, Edwin Kiarie, will battle at the par 72 course which is currently in its best condition where, despite the huge field, some interesting scores are likely to be posted.