Magical Kenya Open lives up to its billing

Held for the first time as a European Tour event, the Kenya Open Golf Championship has registered a great success as the country seeks to become a leading golf tourism destination in the world.

The big local and international publicity the tournament got will go a long way in attracting international players and leading professionals who may have missed this year’s event.

Some 144 players, 20 of them Kenyans, turned out to battle for a share of Sh125 million (1.1 million Euros), with the winner taking home Sh20.5 million. At the end of four days of action, Italian Guido Migliozzi triumphed to take the top prize.

“It was very exciting playing in front of such a big crowd but more or so, receiving the trophy from the President of the country. I felt so great and will definitely come back next year to defend my title,’’ Migliozzi, who turned professional in 2016, said.

European Tour Production, a company that produces and distributes content for European Tour, did a marvelous job of producing quality material, and so did various broadcasting channels which made sure that more than 460 million people globally saw what Kenya has to offer.

Held for the first time under the European Tour’s “Race to Dubai “ series, and probably with less money than some of the events in the tour, it was to be expected that some of the big names in the Tour, a number of whom are also members of other tours in the world, would skip Kenya Open.

Going by the turnout, it is a matter of time before Kenyan golf enthusiasts against see some of the big names such as Francesco Molinari, Ian Poulter, Richard Starne, Henrik Stenson, Dylan Frittelli, Adrian Oteagui, Miguel Angel Jiminez, and former Kenya Open champion Aaron Rai, in action on Kenya soil.

The prize money for the tournament is at the bottom of the list of the European events, but it is expected to go up with more support from the government and other sponsors.

But organizers may be forced to reconsider the timing of the event to make sure that it does not clash with some of the big tournaments in the Tour, or elsewhere where some of the leading players are also members.

Like last year at Muthaiga Club, only two local players, namely Simon Ngige of Thika Sports Club and the Great Rift Valley Resort’s Justus Madoya, made it to the money list this year.

However, players like Dismas Indiza, Greg Snow, Rizwan Charania and David Wakhu were expected to be in the final two rounds.

Most of the local players missed the cut by a shot or two. The big question remains why Kenyan golfers failed to perform well despite having played well in the Safari Tour events.

During the qualifier tournaments, Kenyan players did not come up against a quality field as that at Karen Club. Besides the Tour which marks its second year with the 2019/2020 series, local players will require more competitive playing opportunities in order to match the international players.