Lady golfer Mwende wins in Nakuru

What you need to know:

  • On-form lady golfer Halima Mwende beat a field of 147 players at the par-73 Nakuru Golf Club course to win the third leg of Barclays Bank Golf tour at the weekend.
  • Mwende produced an excellent 44 points made up of 23 in the first nine and 21 at the back nine.
  • “I’m happy to have won here. I’ve been practising a lot but with the course playing easy, I didn’t believe I would be the overall winner today,’’ Mwende said after receiving her prize from Barclays Bank’s Chief Financial Officer Yusuf Omari.

On-form lady golfer Halima Mwende beat a field of 147 players at the par-73 Nakuru Golf Club course to win the third leg of Barclays Bank Golf tour at the weekend.

Mwende produced an excellent 44 points made up of 23 in the first nine and 21 at the back nine.

“I’m happy to have won here. I’ve been practising a lot but with the course playing easy, I didn’t believe I would be the overall winner today,’’ Mwende said after receiving her prize from Barclays Bank’s Chief Financial Officer Yusuf Omari.

Taking the men’s title was the veteran golfer Njuguna Njoka, currently off handicap six. Njoka bogeyed the second, fifth and eighth for 18 points in the first nine.

He however birdied the 10th, 15th and 18th holes for 22 points at the back nine to beat Victor Kanyaura, Esto Gentral and John Kinuthia by a point. Kanyaura beat the last two on countback for the runners-up prize.

Leading the ladies was handicap 16 Miriam Wanjiku who double-bogeyed the fourth and scratched the 17th but still managed to sign for 39 points made up of 19 and 20, with Josephine Kaime posting 37 points for the second prize.

The two nines went to Soulyman Soro (24) and Enock Ogembo (21). Wining the gross was John Kamais (35), while Vet Lab’s Tom Chirchir was the best guest. Trevor Hungi claimed the Junior with 30 points and Yusuf Omari was the staff having posted 30 points.

In the subsidiary events, Esther Karuga won the ladies longest drive contest. Men’s winner was Soy MP Caleb Kositany. Charles Mecha and Eleanor Wambui won the nearest to pin prize.

The going however proved tough for Anthony Mwendia who only managed nine points to rightfully claim the “Piga Mingi’’ prize.

The team of Ali Wasim, Munyao Sila, Tom Chirchir and Kelvin Kiplenge posted a total of 42 points to win the team prize.

During the prize giving ceremony, Omari said Barclays had organised the series in order to bring the story of the success of Barclays Kenya Open golf tournament closer to all Kenyans.