All set for Magical Kenya Open at Muthaiga

The battle for cash and points towards the "Road to Dubai" is finally on in this year’s Magical Kenya Open, a DP World Tour event, which tees off from 7.10am at the par 71 Muthaiga Golf Club course on Thursday.

The Kenya Open, currently titled the Magical Kenya Open for sponsorship reasons, is the biggest professional golf event in East Africa. This year, it has attracted a field of 144 players, including four amateurs unlike the usual field of 156.

It comes after a successful G4D (Golf for Disabled) event and a colourful Open Pro-Am that saw over 152 golfers rubbing shoulders with 50 professionals in what the pros used as a final build-up.

The Open has been held annually since 1967, except in 1976, 2003 and 2020, when it could not tee off for various reasons.

This year’s event will be the 55th edition and the fifth since it became part of the European Tour, now refereed as the DP World Tour in 2019. Before then, it was part of the European Challenge Tour, a development tour since 1991.

Since last year’s winner, Jorge Campillo from Spain, is away in Mexico for another event, the title will be up for grabs for those who travelled to Nairobi.

Some of the stars who are listed to play include Ashun Wu, who in 2022 became the first Chinese to put his name in the Kenya Open list, while another past winner who is back to try and complete a double is Justin Harding, a South African professional who won the 2021 edition, and Italian Guido Migliozi, who became the first winner of an upgraded Kenya Open in 2019.

In the past, former champions have always found the going tough in the Open, and some have even failed to make it to the last two rounds. No one has been able to beat or equal Maurice Bembridge’s record of back-to-back wins. Bembridge, an English professional now aged 78, won the 1978 title and staged a successful defence in 1979.

One of the players to watch will be Japan’s Rikuya Hoshino, who shot 14 under par to claim his maiden title at Doha during the Commercial Bank of Qatar Masters a fortnight ago.

It will be interesting if he will be able to replicate that Doha form at the tough-playing Muthaiga course, where the rough may decide who takes the top prize in the $2.5 million prize fund event, which kicks the second part of the African swing that includes the SDC Championship at St Francis Links Lake at Eastern Cape from February 29 and later on the Johsson Workwear Open in Edenvale, before the DP World Tour embarks on the Asian swing towards the end of March.

But back to Muthaiga, Kenyan golf followers will be banking on the senior pro-Dismas Indiza to lead the local campaign among the nine professionals, who include the two Kibugu brothers Mutahi and Njoroge, who are at home in Muthaiga.

Njoroge made it to the last two rounds in 2022, while last year, it was the turn of Mutahi, with another Muthaiga player, Greg Snow, having missed the cut narrowly. Indiza, 55, believes this could be his year.

He played well in the Safari Tour 2023/2024, starting with the Uganda Open, where he clinched the title. He then added the Limuru edition of the tour, though his most outstanding performance was at the last leg at Karen, where he shot his career best of 18 under.

“Though golf is unpredictable, we are all here to play well, and we will give it our very best this time round," said Indiza at the practising green on Tuesday.

Njoroge and Mutahi will be out to shine in front of the home fans.

Of the regional qualifiers, Zimbabwe’s Visitor Mapwanya would like to succeed where his compatriot Robson Chinhoi, now in the Sunshine Tour, failed. Uganda’s Ronald Rugumayo is another determined golfer looking forward to a breakthrough in the Open.

The course at Muthaiga is in crisp condition, though one has to keep the ball in play to score well.