High stakes as Safari Tour enters final leg at Karen

It’s do or die for some of the Kenyan pros as well as the visiting players, as they line up for Sunday’s first round of the ninth and final leg of the 2020/21 Safari Tour Pro-golf series at the par 72 Karen Country Club course.

The Karen event has attracted a record entry of 73 players including eight amateurs, and this was to be expected, as both the locals and the foreign players rush for points and prize money to cover some of the expected expenses during the forthcoming Magical Kenya Open as well as the Kenya Savannah Classic.

During the eighth leg at Muthaiga which attracted 63 players, Sigona Golf Club’s Mohit Mediratta who appears to be in an amazing form, beat the more experienced Dismas Indiza in a three-hole play-off to claim the top cash prize of Sh150,000. The two players had tied on three under par 281 at the end of normal play.

Mediratta’s victory eventually threw the qualifying chances wide open to some of the players placed between seventh to 13th place in the Order of Merit, with the top six players assured of a place in the starting list of the Magical Kenya Open.

Those who appears to have secured places in the Open are Greg Snow with 322.2 points, Dismas Indiza on 309.5, Simon Ngige who has scored 268.9 points so far, while others are David Wakhu (260), Eric Ooko (225.2) and Samuel Njoroge on 191.4 points.

The battle to fill in the remaining slots for the Kenyans will therefore be fought among John Wangai, Justus Madoya, Edwin Mudanyi, Mathew Omondi, Jacob Okello, Mohit Mediratta and Mathew Wahome who is currently ranked 13th. The top 12 players after the Karen event will earn their places in the Magical Kenya Open as well as the new event, the Kenya Savannah Classic.

Both events being part of the European Tour and offering similar prize fund of 1 million Euros and 2,000 points towards the “Race to Dubai’’ will be staged at Karen from March 18-21 and March 23-26.

Meanwhile leading the foreign players will be Zimbabwe’s Robson Chinhoi, a winner of the second leg of the tour held at Royal Nairobi Golf, the Uganda Open and the seventh leg at Nyali Golf and Country Club.

Chinhoi, who has been camping in Kenya since the third season of the tour started, finished third in Muthaiga where he collected 45 points, to jump to third overall with a total of 292.1 points. Following him in a distant second among the foreign players is Uganda’s Deo Akope on 99.2 points, with his compatriot Philip Kasozi in third place on 92.5 points.

Kasozi will not only need to make cut at Karen but also try and make a top eight finish in order to deny Nigeria’s Andrew Odoh and Rwanda’s Alloys Nsabimana a starting place in the Open. Odoh who missed a few events this season, has scored 67.6 points while Nsabimana has a total of 61.6 points.

All of them are drawn at Karen on Sunday while leading the eight amateurs, will be Royal Nairobi’s Jay Sandhu who finished in 17th place at Karen with 13 over par 297. Sandhu who is the Kenya Amateur Stroke Play champion, has already qualified for the Open, and so is Vet Lab’s Isaac Makokha who is the current Amateur Match Play champion.

The two are using the Karen event as part of their preparation for the Open, and so is Limuru’s Paul Muchangi who was given a chance to play in the 2021 Open because of having qualified for the cancelled 2020 tournament.

The three amateurs will be joined by Tanzania’s Victor Joseph who chose to play in the Muthaiga Open also taking place this weekend, and two juniors Mutahi Kibugu and Taimur Malik who are currently in South Africa featuring in some international events.

Other amateurs drawn include one of Kenya’s top junior player Channelle Wangari, former ladies amateur champion Naomi Wafula, and Karen players Paul Kaguamba and Emmanuel Agengo.

Just like the pros, the amateurs will have to make the first and second round cut in order for them to proceed to the last two rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday.