Kenya’s pros hope to make cut in 2019 after below-par year

At the beginning of this year, Kenyan golf had two regional trophies in its cabinet at Kenya Golf Union’s Muthaiga Golf Club offices.

The two — the Victoria Cup played annually, on rotational basis between Kenya and Uganda, and the East Africa Challenge Cup — had been clinched the previous year in Uganda and Dar es Salaam, respectively.

While as it was to be expected, Kenya, which hosted the 2018 Victoria Cup on the long-playing Vet Lab Sports Club course, easily retained the cup for the third year in a row by running over the Ugandans under cold conditions.

It was, however, not to be the case in the Challenge Cup staged at the Nyali Golf and Country Club’s par 71 course.

The Nyali tournament attracted players from Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Congo DRC, Seychelles, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda.

Many expected the Nyali course to favour the hosts because of the fact that a number of the Kenyan players were playing at home course.

Recalling the Vet Lab fiasco, the Ugandans came back strongly against the Kenyans while Tanzania and Rwanda also impressed.

The first round strokeplay was not an issue for the hosts as they easily fought their way to the semis where they met Rwanda.

This, they thought, was a mere formality and an easy passage into the final where they were sure of, once again, meeting Uganda.

But this did not happen as the Kenyan boys either under-rated the Rwandese, or it was a Victoria Cup fatigue. They failed to produce their usual fireworks, leaving the Rwandese to open up big leads which the Kenyans failed to recover, a situation which saw them losing matches they should not have lost.

In the final match between Rwanda and Uganda, the Ugandans, thirsting for the trophy, showed no mercy to the Rwandese whom they easily beat to re-claim the trophy they lost in Dar es Salam Tanzania last year, having kept it from 2014 to 2016. Kenya had to settle for a third place, the nation’s worst finish in the championship.

Since the East Africa Challenge (now Africa Region Four) started in Tanzania in 1999, Kenya has won the cup 13 times.

However, it was not the first time Kenya played badly at Nyali. In 2011, playing as the defending champions of the Africa Zone Six Cup they had won in Gaborone, Botswana, the previous year, performed poorly surrendering the cup back to South Africa.

Kenyan coach Ali Kimani admitted that Kenya did not deserve to lose the cup, especially having humiliated the Ugandans at Vet Lab less than a week earlier.

“Our players took the other teams for granted without realizing the event was now being played in a new format being used by other Africa regions,’’ said Kimani who in 2010 steered Kenya to its first victory in the then Africa Zone Six Championship.
Lack commitment
Kimani says Kenya needs to build a strong team based on a well-trained junior squad.

But, at the same time, Kimani said some of the current crop of amateur golfers lack commitment.
“One has to understand how important it is to play for the country. It is a national duty which players have to take seriously the way the South Africans do.”

But the Nyali loss aside, the poor performance for Kenya’s teams started with the junior team at the All Africa Junior Golf Championship at Royal Dar es Salaam Club in Rabat, Morocco, where despite having some of the most experienced juniors, Kenya once again finished fourth.

While the Junior Golf Foundation (JGF), a project of the Kenya Golf Union (KGU), embarked on serious nationwide talent search programmes under experienced junior coach John van Liefland, it will take some time before Kenya reclaims its past glory not only in the junior section but also in the senior category.

Uganda has over the past one year been able to introduce junior coaching programmes in different parts of the country, hence a strong opposition is likely to come from them and other countries like Rwanda and Mauritius which falls in the Africa Region Four and are likely to play in the 2019 Region Four championship to be hosted by Burundi and the junior championship in Botswana.

In the pro ranks, where no Kenyan team has participated in team events, the burden was once again left to the individual professionals to fly the Kenyan flag in international events. It was not, however, a good start for the local pros, although some showed improvement towards the year.

As usual, action for the pros kicked off with the country’s premier golfing event, the Kenya Open at Muthaiga Golf Club in March, where at stake was 500,000 Euros.

But despite the fact that Kenya had entered what looked like a strong contingent to the Open, the results were probably the worse for the Kenyans in the 50-year history of the Open, both for pros and amateurs.

Only two out of the 26 players who had been listed to play went through past the second round.

But even the two who made the cut — Rizwan Charania and Mohit Mediratta — performed well below par. Charania shot six over par 290 to tie for 69th place while Mediratta was down in 71st place with eight over 292.
And from nowhere, Italy’s winner Lorenzo Gagli produced 11 under par 273, a score which was a shot off Jacob Okello’s 12 under par in 1998 when he lost in a play-off to Argentina’s Ricaldo Gonzalez.
With 11 under, Gagli tied at the with Sweden’s Jens Fahrbring whom he later beat in a sudden death play- off.
Best placed Kenyan
A few Kenyan pros the ventured into a number of events in the Southern Africa’s Sunshine Tour such as the Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mopani Open (Zambia).
But like in the Kenya Open, they did not do anything better than making the cut for a few of them.
With nothing to look forward to, the Kenyan pros had to wait for the Karen Masters which was this year played under the umbrella of the Sunshine Tour.
Again, Kenya had a big entry which saw five of them making the cut. But even here, the best placed Kenyan Dismas Indiza was placed in 33rd after posting one under par 287 with the next to him being Simon Ngige in 44th on one over par 289. Of the remaining three, Stefan Andersen who is a regular player in the Sunshine Tour and who ideally should have played better, came in tying in 53th on five over par 293

South Africa, which provided the bulk of the players, took the top prize via Michael Palmer who posted 18 under par 270.

But thanks to the start of the Kenya Open Golf Limited sponsored Safari Tour, the local pros were able to wind up the year well with Dismas Indiza clinching the Uganda Open in Entebbe where he fired an impressive 10 under par 274.

He followed this with a close second place in the Malawi Open where he fired 291 to finish three shots off the winner, Zimbabwe’s Trinosa Muradzikwa at Lilongwe Golf Club.

Another Kenyan pro, Justus Madoya, finished second behind local player Ernest Ndayisenga on the Rwanda Open where only a handful of Kenyan professionals participated.

Now with the 2019 action for the pros starting early next month, with the remaining two legs of the Safari Tour at Karen and Muthaiga, it is hoped that there will be some good performances by the locals during the 2019 Kenya Open, now a full European Tour event, back at Karen from March 14 to 17.