Joseph Ndung'u: Caddie who defied racial divides to play in 1969 Kenya Open
Kenya’s Golfer of the Year and defending champion, Michael Karanga, receives this year’s Sigona Bowl from Joseph Ndungu (right), who won this trophy 50 years ago on January 26, 2025. The Bowl is part of the NCBA Kenya Amateur Golf Championship’s (KAGC) first leg.
What you need to know:
- Ndung’u, 82, is still active as a trainer of golfers at Vet Lab Golf Club, fit a fiddle and regularly enjoys his round of golf.
- At Muthaiga where he teed off in his first Kenya Open in 1969, Ndungu’s only regret is that most of his peers, who went on to force themselves on the high table of professional golfing and finally got accepted by the white golfing fraternity, are all dead.
Joseph Ndung’u stands upright, strong and jovial. Tomorrow, Muthaiga Golf Club will be his base as he joins a selected number of caddies who transitioned to become professional golfers and whose resilience formed the foundation of African players in the early years of independence.
Ndung’u, 82, is still active as a trainer of golfers at Vet Lab Golf Club, fit a fiddle and regularly enjoys his round of golf.
At Muthaiga where he teed off in his first Kenya Open in 1969, Ndungu’s only regret is that most of his peers, who went on to force themselves on the high table of professional golfing and finally got accepted by the white golfing fraternity, are all dead.
“I and Kibuika Kariuki of Kiambu Club are the only one alive,” he recalled in an online interview from his home in Nderi, a stone throw away from Sigona Golf Club where his life on the a golf course started in 1956 aged only 13.
“They are all gone -- Jimmy Kahugu, John Mucheru and Nginyo Kariuki. But what we strived to achieve can be seen by the number of local golfers who need not any longer start as caddies to play all the way to the Kenya Open,” his voice trailing off in sadness.
Ndung’u has seen golf being played in colonial era, post independent Kenya and modern Kenya where more Africans are taking up golf especially at Ndumberi and Jockey Club of Kenya whose courses are open to unattached players for a fee.
“I joined golf by accident after local missionaries in Kikuyu rewarded me for being a good boy by asking me to accompany him for a round of golf while carrying their bags from 1956-1960.
“Golf clubs were exclusive and even the missionaries were not members. There was a lot of racial discrimination also. So the priests decided to give me a small gift by adding me to their Sigona Golf Club Group Membership, which did not allow us to enter the clubhouse. The other Group Members were the Armed Forces.”
With time Ndung’u proved to be a quick learner and started playing with whites but their interaction ended on the course.
Despite the racial divide, white settlers encouraged their caddies to learn the game at Sigona. This resulted in a caddies’ competition in 1960 which Ndung’u won. “This was a big day for me after I won with a 17 score 78 par 74. Since I would play for a handicap at age 17.
He was ready to join other players like Charles Farr, David Farr, Ben Okello and Jimmy Kahugu by 1967. “I then joined BAT as a salesman as first Kenya amateurs and then professionals. He finally made his debut in the Kenya Open in 1969. He moved to Vet Lab where he has been based for over 50 years.
Ndung'u story and that of Africa caddies is captured by Duncan Ndegwa, a pioneer African golfer and former Central Bank of Kenya Governor in his autobiography, "Walking with Kenyatta Struggles” which starts at Ndumebri Golf Club in Kiambu town.
“There abandoned emergency village football pitch was then the African Mecca of golf," he writes in his autobiography, "Walking in Kenyatta Struggles" and continues to illustrate how far Africans have come from, citing professional golfers Mucheru and Nginyo Kariuki, as the best of them all.
Then there are others who broke the colour bar. Africans were not allowed to play but acted as caddies for the Europeans. But there were exceptions.
"At a competition in Muthaiga one day Muojoria from Nyeri arrived in gumboots...in time to tee off,” he writes.
“He wiped gloveless hands on the wet grass and proceeded to strike a long and straight ball onto the fairway. His European partners avoided speaking to him until the fifth tee when the cards were exchanged. He went on to win that day. The day Mucheru's name appeared among the list of winners of Kenya Amateur Champions, the ice of integrating Africans into the competitive game had been broken."
Ndumberi was founded largely in 1963 by the African caddies who were joined by young African civil servants like John Michuki, Duncan Ndegwa, Nat Kang'ethe and former Vice President Joseph Karanja who all became members.