Kenyan team ready for Africa Golf Championship

What you need to know:

  • Wednesday will be the official practising round, while the first round is set for Thursday, with two rounds set for Friday and the fourth and final round will take place on Saturday.
  • During the last event held at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe in 2017, South Africa claimed the overall team title and individual title.

The national team is due to leave the country on Tuesday evening for Port Louis, Mauritius for this year's All Africa Team Golf Championship to be held at Mont Choisy Le Golf course that tees off on Wednesday to Saturday.

The team, which will be led by Kenya Golf Union (KGU) chairman Anthony Murage, has been in training under national junior coach John van Liefland over the past three weeks at Muthaiga Golf Club ahead of the championship which has attracted a total of 15 countries.

Coach Liefland, who will not be travelling with the team, said Kenya was being represented by a very talented group of motivated players.

"I hope they can keep their heads cool in Mauritius and make Kenya proud. During the training, we worked a lot on iron play and proximity to the hole with short irons and wedge game and I have no doubt they will do well if they keep their heads down," said coach Liefland.

SHORT GAME

The team is made up of Samuel Njoroge from Kenya Railway Golf Club, who is also the team captain and currently playing off plus three, Simon Njogu from Great Rift Valley Golf Resort in Naivasha, now at plus one and two juniors, Mutahi Kibugu and Zubair Khan, both from Muthaiga, who are playing off handicap one each.

It is the very same team which lost to Uganda in the Africa Region Four in Bujumbura, Burundi three months ago.

Team captain Njoroge said their training was mostly in short game, which he said has some time been a big issue and approach shots, particularly on a windy course like where they will be playing.

"We have prepared well and I believe we will play better than we did in Burundi," said Njoroge.

This year, the championship will bring together teams from Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Namibia, Re-Union, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and hosts Mauritius.

Wednesday will be the official practising round, while the first round is set for Thursday, with two rounds set for Friday and the fourth and final round will take place on Saturday.

During the last event held at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe in 2017, South Africa claimed the overall team title and individual title.