Royal Golf Club retain Tannahill Shield

Hosts and defending champions Royal Nairobi Golf team as expected, produced their usual final round fireworks to eventually retain the Tannahill Shield for the second year running at the par 72 Royal Nairobi Golf Club course on Sunday.

In a thrilling and tense final round watched by a big crowd, Royal beat Vet Lab Sports Club 7-1 and their arch-rivals Muthaiga 6-2 for a much needed 13 points and a tournament round of 43 points, to beat the hot firing Western by the narrow margin of one point.

During the Royal and Vet Lab match, Royal picked up its first two points through the pair of Jatinder Thethy and junior player Korby Gatiramu, who beat Mike Kisia and Robinson Owiti 3-1 in the match, which ended at the 17th hole, where Gatiramu missed a hole in one by two inches.

Then the pair of Jay Sandhu and Quram Bhatti beat Gurbux Singh and Jack Mwangi 4-2, while Joshua Ichangi and Kevin Juma beat Vet Lab’s Muchau Githiaka and Steve D’Souza 5-4.

It is the one point from the pair of Rachit Patel and his team captain Joseah Kogo, who halved with Leo Zurovac and Steve Orinda, which gave Royal the victory.

In the Royal versus Muthaiga match, Thethy and Gatiramu won 4-3 against Bhavnish Chandaria and Neer Chandaria, while Jay Sandhu and Quram Bhatti won 3-2 against Khushil Nathwani and John Gatonga, while the match of Joshua Ichangi and Kevin Juma ended 2-1 in favour of the Royal pair.

Royal only lost the match of Rachit Patel and Joseah Kogo, who were beaten 3-1 by Mutahi Kibugu and Bo Ciera.

“We are so excited winning this year again, thanks to the total team, though I must say our juniors played a key role in the team this year and I believe next year each and every participating team should endeavour to have at least half of the team made up by juniors," said Royal coach Charan Thethy.

Earlier, Western had collected maximum points (8-0) from Sigona, then beat Railway 6-2 for 14 points in the final round and a total of 42 for a few hours lead, before Royal arrived with their 43 points.

“We are very happy with our performance particularly in the final round which would have easily given us the Shield if Royal did not halve their last match. We had very good preparation thanks to the sponsors we had this time," said Western’s Stanley Kirui.

It was a great final round also for the team 001 from Mombasa, which beat Windsor 6-2 and scored a similar margin against Limuru for a tournament total of 37 points to finish third overall.

This means Mombasa, Royal and Western will meet in the final round of the 2020 tournament.

Muthaiga, who won the Shield in 2017, finished fourth this time with 36 points, just two points better than two rounds leaders Railway, who got only eight points in the final round for a total of 34 points.

The Vet Lab team with only three points in the closing round was placed in sixth place with 32, while in seventh place was Limuru, whose last round score of nine points gave them a total of 28 points, with Sigona surviving relegation narrowly having collected two points in day three for a total of 21 points.

The going was once again tough for Windsor, who now face relegation after finishing last with only 15 points.

This means the hosts Royal will invite Karen back to the tournament next year, where there is also a possibility of Thika Sports Club being added in the tournament to bring the number to 10 teams.

This year’s event was sponsored by Betway, Jamii Telecom through its Faiba brand, AAR Healthcare, Baseline Architects Limited, and The Glenlivet.