Top prize awaits player who holes in one at Karen

What you need to know:

  • This has never happened in Kenya, may be elsewhere in the world. But imagine firing in one there and then battling it out to eventually clinch the overall title.
  • That player may go home with more than Sh27 million, which is not bad at all for a four-day job!

A lucky golfer could easily walk away double richer during the 2020 Magical Kenya Open Golf Championship presented by Absa.

The first round of the European Tour Challenge tournament will be played next week on Thursday at the par-71 Karen Country Club course.

Besides the top prize of Sh20 million which will be at stake for the 2020 champion, giant car distributors D.T. Dobie are back as the hole one and transport partner for this year’s Magical Kenya Open presented by Absa.

The company is this week expected to present a brand new Mercedes Benz car, which will be on offer as a special prize for the first player to hole in one over the 210-yard par three-14th hole.

In 2018, D.T. Dobie also offered a Mercedes Benz GLC 250 Coupe which was then valued at 89,400 Euro (about Sh11 million) for a hole-in-one at the par three-13th at Muthaiga Golf Club course.

No one managed to grab the car. Incidentally, that is the same hole where Finland’s Oliver Linden walked away with a brand new Ford Ranger Wildtrack car valued at Sh6.9 million after firing a solid 7-iron into the hole over the water.

It was the first feat since the hole-in-one award was introduced in the 1970s in the 53-year-old Kenya Open now in its second year as part of the European Tour series.

In many cases, the hole in one feat usually happens by luck as no player actually approaches a par three hole with the purpose of holing in one, but put the ball as closer as possible to the pin.

But it is possible for one to hole in one, particularly at the 14th hole which usually is played as the fifth hole in the ordinary Karen Country Club’s par-72 course layout.

Incidentally, that is the very same hole where Zimbabwe’s Ryan Cairns walked away with a Toyota Prado car after firing in one in the 2018 Karen Masters, a Sunshine Tour event.

That was Cairns’ fourth hole in one, having achieved two in South Africa and one in Mauritius.

The question is, can a player win the hole-in-one car and go on to emerge as the tournament winner?

This has never happened in Kenya, may be elsewhere in the world. But imagine firing in one there and then battling it out to eventually clinch the overall title.

That player may go home with more than Sh27 million, which is not bad at all for a four-day job!

During last year’s Open, East Africa Breweries offered a bottle of the top range Johnnie Walker Odyssey for a hole-in-one, but this was at par three-16th hole (usually the seventh hole) on a par 72 course. However, no one claimed that bottle and it returned to Ruaraka with the owners.