Royal Nairobi to host KPA golf tourney

The par 72 Royal Nairobi Golf Club course will Friday host the Nairobi edition of Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) Corporate golf tournament.

Following two other events held at Machakos and Nyahururu Sports Club, Friday’s event usually rotates between some of the Nairobi golf clubs, the last one having been held at Karen Country Club.

Nairobi being the capital city, is a business hub with big customers and stakeholders for KPA. This is why KPA has been staging the events in order to appreciate the business support it has received from the Nairobi-based business community.

The Authority also uses the event to network and get feedbacks on its business operations, hence Friday, the KPA acting Managing Director Ambassador John Mwangemi will have an excellent opportunity to inform the business community of the ongoing projects in the Ports of Mombasa, Lamu and Kisumu in further improving service delivery levels for spurring the country's economy growth and the regional hinterland the Port of Mombasa serves.

The grand finale of the KPA corporate events will take place in the Port city of Mombasa and specifically at the century-old Mombasa Golf Club where golfers will be able to appreciate vessels entering and leaving the Port.

For Friday’s event, over 200 players were drawn including KPA staff who vie for special prizes reserved for them.

At Vet Lab Sports Club over 200 golfers were drawn for Friday’s Nyahururu Sports Club fund-raising event which is being supported by a number of corporates organizations including the Nation Media Group, CIC Insurance, KenGen, Mofarm, Wintech, Karen Country Club, Vet Lab, Serena Hotels, Abeona, NCA and NCBA Bank.

The fundraising event is in aid of the Nyahururu Sports Club’s golf course project. Situated in Nyahururu town in Laikipia County, the high altitude golf course has over the years been a nine-hole course.

However a few years ago, the board of management and the general membership of 369 members resolved to develop an 18-hole course, hence Friday’s fund-raising event. The club targets to raise Sh25 million for the project.

Meanwhile down at the Coast, the nine-hole Malindi Golf Club course comes alive this weekend after a long time. The North Coast club will host the Diamonds Dream of Africa stableford competition where an array of prizes will be at stake.

The event is open to any golfer from across the country where the top prize will be two nights at Sandies Baobab Resort in Zanzibar in all-inclusive for two people.

Teeing off will start at 7am, and all Covid-19 protocols will strictly be observed. Club captain Walter Ombogo said the purpose of the event was to try and raise funds to help the complete Malindi Golf and Country Club complete the new sports field.

The ladies are meanwhile heading to Nakuru County this weekend for the Central Rift Region Ladies Open which starts Friday with the Great Rift Valley Ladies’ tournament at the Great Rift Valley Golf Resort in Naivasha.

The ladies will then shift to the par 73 Nakuru Golf Club course in Nakuru City where action starts for the ladies stableford Saturday morning followed by the mixed foursomes in the afternoon.

The main medal event will however take place on Sunday at the same venue where in action will be some of the leading lady golfers such as Vet Lab’s Mercy Nyanchama, Eldoret Golf Club’s Esther Chumo and home player Esther Karuga.

Meanwhile, fresh from his victory in the Kabete Open at Vet Lab Sports Club last weekend, Nyali’s Adel Balala will be the man to beat this weekend in the Trans Nzoia Open at the par 73 Kitale Golf Club course where Ebill Omollo of Vet Lab, Limuru’s Dennis Maara, Isaac Makokha of Vet Lab and Royal Nairobi’s Kevin Juma are also eyeing the Trans Nzoia Open title.

Elsewhere, Limuru will be the venue for the Crown Paints tournament while at Karen Country Club a big field will be battling it out for the Karen Day trophy with the nine-hole course at Machakos hosting the fifth edition of the annual Konza City golf tournament.