Kenya’s top pros, amateurs to lead charge at Karen

The maximum field of 156 including five Kenyan amateur golfers has now been entered and listed for this year’s KCB Karen Masters set for next week Thursday at Karen Country Club.

Earlier, the event in its third year and being sponsored by Kenya Commercial Bank, had been oversubscribed by 40 players mainly from the Sunshine Tour which is sanctioning the event for the second year running.

The top 10 players on the list are invitees by the Sunshine Tour and hosts Karen. A number of players from outside South Africa which provides the bulky of players in the tour, were entered from the regional Order of Merit for the tournament which this year, offers a prize fund of 2.2 million rand (Sh15.6 million).

Leading the field particularly for those coming from the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit, will be last year’s winner of the Karen Masters Michael Palmer while other leading players entered include Daniel Van Tonder, a regular player not only in the Sunshine Tour but also in the European Challenge Tour.

Hosts Kenya has entered 32 professionals and five amateurs four of whom were entered from the Kenya Golf Union’s Order of Merit. They are Samuel Njoroge from Kenya Railway Golf Club, Daniel Nduva of Nyali in Mombasa, Simon Njogu from the Great Rift Valley Golf Resort in Naivasha, and a junior entry in Matthew Wahome of Nyali.

The fifth amateur, is Anthony Gacheru who is one of the invitees in this year’s tournament. On the local pro list, those entered include Justus Madoya and Simon Ngige who were the only Kenyan players to make the cut in the European Tour’s Magical Kenya Open also held at Karen in March.

SIX UGANDANS

There are also those who made cut in last year’s Masters while the rest qualified for the event from the just concluded KCB Road to Karen Masters series.

Uganda has been given six slots this year while Tanzania, Malawi, Nigeria, Zambia and Namibia will have two players each. Nigeria’s Andrew Odoh as well as Zambians Madalitso Muthiya and Dyne Moore were entered through the Sunshine Tour.

The event starts with the Pro-Am on Wednesday before the main event gets underway the next day. The Karen Masters is the second biggest event in terms of prize money in the Sunshine Tour after the Mopani Zambia Open whose prize money was 2.5 million Rand (Sh17.5 million).