Coast Open hits century landmark

The battle for points in the 2019 Kenya Amateur Golf Championship (KAGC) series and some slots in next year’s Magical Kenya Open goes to the port City of Mombasa for the Coast Open golf championship at the Links Mombasa Golf Club course.

One of the most popular events in the national golf calendar, and coming two weeks after the Limuru Open, this year’s Coast Open marks a major milestone not only in the history of the Mombasa Golf Club, but the country as a whole.

Also known as the “Barry Cup", the event marks 100 years since it was started, just two years after the opening of the club in 1911. The Cup was donated by the first captain of the club Percy Barry in 1913 and has been taking place annually since then, save for years when the First and Second World wars were fought, thus making it the oldest national Order of Merit tournament in the country.

Though still being played over 36 holes, the Coast Open has continued to attract the country’s elite amateur golfers as well as others from across the East Africa region and beyond.

Many of the country’s top golfers have passed through the tiny but most challenging Mombasa Golf Club course along Mama Ngina Drive and many of them have lifted the Barry Cup more than once.

However, Kenya’s legendary golfer, the late John Mucheru’s record of eight victories remains intact. One of the best golfers Kenya ever produced, Mucheru won the Barry Cup for the first time in 1975 and the last time in 1991. He followed the late Bob Marjan, one of the top golfers from Kenya Railway Golf Club, who paved the way for Africans by winning the 1971 title.

In between those years, Mucheru posted two back-to-back wins (1978-79) and 1988-89, a record that was later on matched by Hardeep Thethy of Royal Nairobi (1995-1996), Sullivan Muthugia of Thika (2009-2010), David Opati then of Golf Park (2011-2012) and Nyali’s Mathew Wahome who in 2014 became the youngest at the age of 16 to win the cup and defend it the following year.

Except Wahome, and 2013 winner Daniel Nduva also from Nyali, and others like Francis Kimani (2016), Vet Lab’s Mike Kisia (2017), and defending champion George Felix of Railway, a number of the past winners went on to become professionals.

They include Hardeep and Charan Thethy, Kopan Timbe, David Odhiambo, Nicholas Rokoine, Muthugia, Opati, Nelson Mudanyi and Greg Snow.

For many years, the event was dominated by upcountry players until veteran Musa Odada then a member of Nyali Golf and Country Club clinched the 2004 title to open the doors for Coast-based golfers though it took another nine years before Nduva claimed the title. However, since Wahome’s double in 2014 and 2015, the cup has eluded Coast golfers.

Hence Nduva and Wahome and Mohammed Taib, John Timbe, Agil Is-Haq, Adel Balala and George Munyao are expected to put up a strong show in a bid to clinch the 100th edition.

This year, the club has organised a pre-Barry Cup subsidiary event open to golfers playing off handicap 28 and below which, a great opportunity for the some of the elite amateurs to test the course before Saturday’s opening round.