Global glory for Kenyan pros Thethy’s ambitious objective

Kenya’s recently launched Safari Golf Tour has been described by the Professional Golfers of Kenya (PGK) chairman Charan Thethy as a great initiative and step in the right direction but not a solution in itself.

Thethy says the tour will in a way be beneficial to the local professionals who have been yearning for it for a long time.

“It has already started showing some signs of good hope going by recent events such as the 2018 Uganda Open where Kenya’s Dismas Indiza led from start to finish. I believe the tour plus some of the events the PGK has been organising to supplement the tour will be of great help to our professional golfers,’’ said Thethy.

But the PGK boss says unless and until Kenyan professionals can be in a position to compete with other players in international events such as the Sunshine, Challenge Tour or the European Tours, winning the country’s premier event, the Kenya Open, will remain to be but a dream.

“It is ideal to have the tour and I am looking forward to the day it will grow and become a regional tour and bring experienced players who will give the Kenyans serious competition. There is still need to pick let’s say, the top five finishers in the Safari Tour Order of Merit and give them a chance to play in the international tours such as the Challenge and Sunshine.”

Thethy is happy that the Safari Tour is already discussing the possibility of supporting the top five players to play in the international tours. This, he says, is what will turn the tide for the good among pros.

“Though right now the Safari Tour has planned for seven events, it will be great when eventually we will go to the level of having like 25 events in a year including the ones PGK is organising. They will improve our players a great deal. For this, we would like to approach corporates as well as the government through the PGK for support.”

But at the same time, the PGK boss says Kenyan pros must also focus by trying to learn how to compete against experienced players.

“A bit of management on one’s game is very important, and I must say I was impressed by the way Dismas Indiza played in the Uganda Open. He might have dropped some few shots, but he made sure that he protected what he had gained and that is very important even for other future international events.”

Thethy says achieving the success he envisions will require individual or group sponsorship and management to the best and talented players.

It has been very difficult over the years for Kenyan players to travel outside the country for international events, but whenever they have, the performances have always been impressive.

“When players like Jacob Okello, Dismas Indiza and others were offered the opportunity to play in the Sunshine Tour, they did well even in our own Kenya Open,” Thethy posited.

In addition to giving Kenyan pros a chance to sharpen their skills, he says the PGK would like to engage or bring a coaching professional to offer mind coaching to local pros.

Thethy, says the mind coach brought into the country by the Kenya Open Golf Limited was very useful.
He prefers though that if such a coach would have been brought early enough – preferably a month before such events as the Kenya Open or Karen Masters.

But Thethy says all these are temporary measures which can bring quick success or improvement.

“I strongly believe that besides sending our players to play in international events, the long term solution lies in our junior programmes. In Kenya, we do not adequately nurture and prepare our junior golfers for such things like professional status.

There is therefore need for PGK to work closely with such bodies like the Kenya Golf Union and its subsidiaries such as the Junior Golf Foundation (JGF) in identifying talents early enough and prepare these juniors for the future.”

Thethy, himself a product of junior golf programmes, says some of the initiatives taken by the JGF should include getting scholarships for juniors.

He says this will help them even in cases where some do not make it as professionals by exposing them to international and growing their golfing talents.

“My young brother Hardeep Thethy and I were the first Kenyan juniors to get golf scholarships which was a great help to our parents as it saved them a lot of money and even though we did not make it to the top in the big tours, it was a great help for us,’’ said Thethy who thanked corporates such as Prime Bank for having introduced the Prime Bank Gold Visa Card for the purpose of raising funds for the JGF.

Thethy, a son of veteran Royal Nairobi Golf Club golfer Davinder Thethy, started playing golf at the age of 11 years under the coaching of veteran professional Elisha Kasuku at Royal Nairobi.

Thethy turned professional in December 1999 following a colourful career in the amateur scene where he won some of the top events in the country such as the Kenya Amateur Match Play Championship (1999), the Nyali Open (with a margin of 11 shots in 1998), Coast Open, Nyanza Open, Trans Nzoia Open and all Golfer of The Year events.

Besides all of the above, he also represented the country in the Africa Zone Six Championship in 1994 and 1995 where Kenya finished second only to South Africa in both events.

He also qualified three times to play in the Kenya Open as an amateur where he finished second twice.
On the club level, Thethy won the Royal Club Match Play title in 1994, 1997 and 1999 having won the Stroke play title earlier in 1995.

He represented his club in the popular Tanahill Shield from 1992 to 1995, winning all four years he took part.

He is a joint holder of the course record at Royal on eight under par 64 while his lowest round was a 63, and was also able to play the lowest handicap of Plus 2 as an amateur at the age of 18 years.

He was lucky enough to get a golf scholarship in 1995, to study along his brother Hardeep Thethy at the Business Management.

While in university, Thethy and his brother represented their college in many tournaments, winning the UTSA Invitational at La Cantera Golf Club in San Antonio, Texas where he shot 70 and 72 among many other achievements.

As a professional, Thethy featured in a number of local and international events and among the local events he won were the UAP in Nyali and the Johnnie Walker in Sigona where he shot rounds of 69 and 65.

Internationally, Thethy won the Uganda Open in 2003 and finished second the next year.

He also featured in the Middle East based Mena Tour and the Sunshine Tour where he made the cut on several occasions.

In some of the Tours, Thethy played alongside such greats as Ernie Els, Trevor Immelman, both South Africans, Zimbabwean Nick Price, Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose and Thomas Bjorn.

His most notable success in the Sunshine Tour was a three-way run in South Africa where he qualified to play in the Vodacom Players Championship at Royal Cape Golf Club in Cape Town.

He made the cut and beat the then world number two Ernie Els. He took over the chairmanship of the PGK in 2007 until 2012 and was re-elected again in April 2017.

Besides being the PGK boss, Thethy is also currently the Head Professional at Royal, a club he grew up in and which is dear to him.