Kibugu offers hope for local, young golfers

Mutahi Kibugu

Kenya's Mutahi Kibugu gestures to the fans at 18th hole' during the Magical Kenya Open on March 12, 2023 Muthaiga Golf Club.

Photo credit: Sila Kiplagat | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • In making the cut and finishing 65th overall ahead of big names, 22-year-old has proven that investment in youth programmes can pay off.
  • With a fair prize fund of at least Sh3 million per event, the Safari Tour will be able to attract full fields and some good players from west and south Africa.

The sterling performance of Kibugu brothers Njoroge and Mutahi in the annual Magical Kenya Open Golf tournament is testament to the centrality of talent development programmes to the success of local golf.

The DP World Tour event held at the par 71 Muthaiga Golf Club course saw 22-year-old Mutahi Kibugu defy pressure of being the only Kenyan player to have met the second round cut, bringing home a fair one under par total of 283.

Although local fans would have loved to see him finish in a better position than joint 65th overall, Mutahi did better than many big names, including his eight pro professional colleagues and six amateurs as well as two players from the region who had qualified for the tournament via the Kenya-based Safari Tour series.

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Kibugu’s rounds of 68, 71, 71 and 73 were still better than those of eight other the players who made the second round cut on Friday.

In the end, he performed better than pre-tournament favourite Marcel Siem of Germany, who had won the Hero Indian Open in New Delhi India a week before coming to Nairobi, and defending champion Ashun Wu from China, India’s Shubhankar Sharma, Sweden’s Mikael Lundberg, South Africa’s Brandon Stone and former Kenya Open champion Lorenzo Gagli.

It was a tough field, with 49 players scoring five under par and better. Kibugu’s performance is testament to the level of talent available locally that requires sacrifice  by the individual and the country.

Years ago when the tournament  was a European Challenge Tour event, a big number of Kenyan players made the final list, and some like Jacob Okello, the late Peter Njiru, John Kiondo, Anil Shah, Dismas Indiza and Greg Snow made came close to winning the title.

Okello lost in sudden-death play-off at the 13th hole to Argentina’s Ricaldo Gonzalez in the 1998 edition of the tournament.

Today, the tournament, now known as Magical Kenya Open and is part of the DP World Tour, attracts top players from different parts of the world, and there is need for a serious approach by local golfers.

One of way to raise the game of the local players is to put more effort on the junior programme by giving young players the necessary exposure.

There is also need to improve Safari Tour series which is a local qualifier tournament.

Local players need a minimum of one event per month. South Africans are found almost in all the professional golf tours in the world because the country has developed the Sunshine Tour which, though mostly played in South Africa, has been a good platform for nurturing talent.

In this year’s tournament at Muthaiga, the field included 20 South Africans, 14 of whom finished in the money list. And there are many more in the other world tours such as the PGA of America, the Challenge Tour, and such tours like the Asian tour.

With a fair prize fund of at least Sh3 million per event, the Safari Tour will be able to attract full fields and some good players from west and south Africa.

This will give local players a good challenge. On the other, there is need to have at least one Challenge Tour event other than the Magical Kenya Open.