Golf: Safaricom Tour heads to Nyali

Action in the popular Safaricom Golf Tour now heads down to the Coast for the eighth leg at the par 71 Nyali Golf and Country Club, Mombasa County.

This comes a week after one of the most colourful events at Karen Country Club last weekend where veteran golfer Don Riaroh beat among others, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa, to claim the overall title in the seventh leg.

The Nyali event has attracted a big field of 224 players, probably one of the biggest at the venue this year.

However, the junior event to be held on Sunday, had by yesterday afternoon, attracted only 58 players.

Those drawn for the Corporate event on Saturday include juniors who will have an opportunity to test the tough Nyali course before they return on Sunday for their age-grade tournament.

Watch out for Nairobi-based Nathan Caralon and Maryam Mwakitawa who are drawn to tee off in the morning.

Also drawn are a number of guests from various clubs in the country as well as staff of Safaricom.

To battle it out for the top three prizes, namely the overall winner, men winner and the lady winner who will earn a place to the grand finale to be held at Vipingo Ridge in Kilifi County, will be players like John Orioro.

He won the May Mug last weekend with an impressive score of nett 68. Long hitter William Kaguta as well as Kenya Amateur Strokeplay and Nyali Open champion Adel Balala who has been missing in action since the Magical Kenya Open in early March, will also be in the mix.

Whether Balala is still in the great form he displayed last year or not, time will tell though being at home and on a course he knows better, it will not be a surprise if he picks one of the prizes on offer.

The format is stableford scoring, meaning a low handicap like Balala will have to produce an under par score to beat some of the middle and high handicappers.

With the recent rains, Nyali must be in its best condition and all ready for the golfing action.

“As we embark on the second half of our inaugural golf tour, we remain optimistic of the impact it is having. We have reached close to 3,000 young people through the clinics, junior tournament and outreach programmes and we look forward to interacting with more young people from the Coast this weekend”, said Safaricom CEO Ndegwa.

The Safaricom Golf Tour has so far traversed seven locations across the country namely: Nanyuki, Limuru, Muthaiga, Nyanza, Machakos, Eldoret and Karen, drawing over 4,200 golfers who have taken part in the tournaments, junior clinics and outreach programmes.

After the Nyali tournament, six more legs will take place before the series culminates in a grand finale at Vipingo Ridge, Kilifi County, in August.