Sh5 million for Kenya Ladies Open winner
What you need to know:
- The Magical Kenya Ladies Open takes place from December 5 to 8 with the Pro-Am, which will offer an opportunity for local amateurs to play with the world’s best ladies professional golfers, is set for December 4.
The overall winner of the inaugural Magical Kenya Ladies Open, a Ladies European Tour (LET) tournament set for the PGA Baobab Course at Vipingo Ridge Golf Resort in Kilifi County. will take home Sh5 million.
Being held in East Africa for the first time, the 2019 Magical Kenya Ladies Open, which has attracted the sponsorship of Magical Kenya and Safaricom’s Mpesa, will have a total prize fund of over Sh33 million.
It will be the third LET event in Africa, following the Investec South Africa Women’s Open played in Cape Town with a prize fund of Sh13.6 million and the Lalla Meryem Cup at Royal Dar es Salaam’s Blue Course in Rabat, Morocco and whose total prize fund is about Sh50.5 million, which is the richest of the three Africa legs.
Announcing the prize purse, event promoter U.COM’s Dirk Glittenberg said that the purse was globally competitive.
“This is the first time a Ladies European Tour event is being held in Kenya and we are delighted that we have received the necessary support to enable us to host this event and offer a globally acceptable and attractive prize purse.
Professional golfers choose which tournaments to play in based on a variety of factors – course condition, hospitality is important, convenience of getting to the venue, the overall experience expected and naturally the prize purse plays a big part in that decision-making process.”
Among the biggest events in terms of prize money in the Tour is the Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open in Abu Dhabi which is US$300,000 and at the Jordan Mixed Open, that offers US$393,000.
“There are 17 events on the Ladies European Tour calendar, excluding the Majors, eight of those offer a smaller prize purse than the Magical Kenya Ladies Open, four offer more and another four offer the same prize fund of Euros300,000,” Glittenberg added.
“We, however understand that these professional golfers will also be driven to this beautiful country by factors over and above the prize purse and we know they will have a great time in Kenya.
They can visit the beautiful beaches and game parks, enjoy the coastal cuisine and take away with them an experience of a lifetime.”
The Magical Kenya Ladies Open takes place from December 5 to 8 with the Pro-Am, which will offer an opportunity for local amateurs to play with the world’s best ladies professional golfers, is set for December 4.
