Kenya Golf Open - Barclays gets you Teeing off

Kenya's ultimate golfing experience comes to you around this time of the year. Aptly named Kenya Open, the country's most prestigious golfing tournament tees off this Thursday at the Muthaiga Golf Club.

This golf forklore which has eluded many a Kenyan golfer will be sponsored by Barclays Bank Kenya hence the moniker 'Barclays Kenya Open', which committed title sponsorship till 2015. This year's tournament will be 3rd tourney ,as part of the 2012 European Challenge Tour and the ONLY African tournament featured too.
The total prize money is (approx)KSh. 20,900,000 ( €190,000) . The tournament has gone on to produce famous golfers  such as;

• Welsh golfer, Ian Woosnam - Winner 1985 ;
• Spanish golfing legend(the late) Seve Ballestros - Winner 1978;
• Irish golfer Christy O' Connor Jr - Winner 1990;
• South African PGA golfer Trevor Immelmann - Winner 2000

The European Challenge Tour website  lists 5 players to watch this weekend including

• England's Chris Lloyd and Nick Dougherty;
• South Africans' Michiel Bothma & Tyrone Ferreira; and
• Danish Andres Harto

For those who love taking those long walks on the greens, and hoping the skies will be as clear as have been in the last couple of months, find your way to one of Kenya's famous golf clubs, Muthaiga Golf Club starting Thursday to Sunday. They say, many a managers are golfing people so you maybe just in luck to strike a deal or two. For more info, log on to the Kenya Golf Union website here. 

In Related News:
Tiger Woods returned to the podium winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational marking his first win since September 2009 and going up the ranks to 6 position on the PGA Tour. This is ahead of the Masters scheduled for next month. Is the Tiger back or is it just a blimp on the radar?

Kenya Open – New Deal

Starting next year, Kenya's golfing premiere event will see a new sponsor following cancellation of Kenya Breweries flagship brand Tusker withdrawal (see previous article below). Kenya Golf Union's chairman said this after signing a deal with Icon Sports Marketing who has been given exclusive rights to find sponsors for next year's event. Icon Sports Marketing is a brainchild of Grace Kiraguri (she of Bamburi Cement and also actively involved in Rugby Safari Sevens) and Sam Mwai previously with Sports Stadia Management Board is part of the team. They have an enormous task of ensuring booty of KShs. 35 million to successfully host the event at the Muthaiga Golf Club. Incidentally Sam Mwai was once a staffer at the Golf Club so they should be in good company and this should not be a hard sell for them

Puzzling as it, unconfirmed reports have it that EABL has withdrawn from all sponsorships. Suicidal if you ask me!

Kenyan Golf finds home in Kenya Golf Network

Kenyan Golf has been flirting with Kenya Data Networks, thanks to the work of one Vincent Wang'ombe-Chief Marketing Officer-KDN. The Kenya Golf Union and the Kenya Ladies Golf Union will be linked across the 38 golf clubs in the country and offer online convergence by developing a portal for information sharing locally and internationally.
As the IT companies raise the stakes in developing content, KDN has been making deliberate moves in golf. They started out with sponsoring the Kenya Golf circuit and this seems to be developing into a healthy relationship.
This portal will include among others;
- registration for golf rounds at the different golf clubs,
- golf calendars,
- golf handicaps, and
- SMS service, among others.
The venture is a welcome boon to sports in Kenya. We look forward to learn from such disciplines as the country hopes to sell its different destinations and using sports tourism. For more details click here.

Golf : Kenya Open:- Truly Social ?

This time of the year Kenya (tagline-Kenya's Social event) entertains the PGA European Tour golfers as well as seasoned and budding golf players for the Kenya Open Golf tournament. This year sponsored by the Tusker brand of East Africa Breweries.
Kenya's premier social event....? Hmmmm....
Well, from the restricted entry into the club ( yes, you have to be a member...unless the club manager gives authority for the 'public' to be let in; to the rules like putting off your phone at the clubhouse; and even silence when the players are about to putt.
I'm one rare breed in a golf course and the only time I visited one was by default- chasing a goat (for Christmas) which had escaped our grips and made way to the nearest golf course. Guess the poor thing had sensed the last days of its life and decided to make a dash for it...
My friends tell me the members are usually a pretentious lot, holding their noses up and often catching up on the latest gossip in the corporate world on the 'greens'. They usually escape the 'fires of hell'-in the office to breath and catch one for the next day hoping whatever issues were there will be resolved before the end of the day.
What puzzles me especially in Kenya is the effort clubs go to trying to maintain the grounds. If the same effort was made by our politicians- who incidentally have numerous members in the 'gentleman's game', the harsh environmental concerns we are having would be in the past...but that's just a thought.
How come we have never managed to get a single player into the PGA proper even after playing this game -a vestige of our colonial masters?
But unlike me, if you can make way to the Muthaiga Golf Club and watch the 'green carpets' and take solace for awhile in these tough economic times !
Be careful what you pick !

Golf City in Kenya

An ambitious plan has been doing the rounds in Nairobi about the development of Golf City right next to the CBD. While it looks good on paper, the whole project reeks of a raw deal considering the parties involved.
For starters, it is known that the Kenya Railways Corporation which invited the bids is in dire straits having lost much of its business to trailer load and trucks which transport the cargo which is their core business. The corporation concessioned part of its business to Rift Valley Railways which is also not doing thus far.
Secondly, KRC is one of the largest land owners in the country and has had to fight with both politicians and greedy individuals who are always on the hunt of their idle development land. A close look at the proposed site of the Golf City attests to this.
For what is prime land between the Jomo Kenyatta Airport to the CBD, it's anyone's guess what they will be on the look-out for.
I will not belabour the point for now, but I believe there are other sports which would be more deserving than golf for now and also the fact that the intended project doesn't even seem to have a target audience.
Considering the development of a similar project at the Coast which in my thinking would be a more viable option, I will not voice my support for this.
More details.