Sunset at Royal Nairobi this weekend

Action continues at Royal Nairobi Golf Club Friday following the week-long Safari Tour golf series second leg which was preceded by last Sunday’s Royal Junior competition.

On Friday morning, over 200 players will battle it out in first event in the Sunset Golfing Society series, being sponsored by Tysons Ltd, VIP Hotel Madeya, Victoria Group of Hotels and Simori Commutations, among others.  

Usually, the Sunset Golfing Society, which draws its members from the Western region, holds its competition in Mombasa in May, Nairobi in October and the grand finale at Nyanza Golf Club, Kisumu. However, due to Covid-19, the Mombasa event was cancelled.

Sunset Golfing Society's Sylvester Odhiambo, who is also the vice captain at Royal, said the Nyanza edition will take place as scheduled on December 19.

“Its sad that we will not be able to have the Mombasa edition this year, but I can confirm that the last event in Kisumu will take place as planned," said Odhiambo, who thanked the sponsors for agreeing to support the event despite the current conditions.

“Many corporates will not even think of sponsoring any event at this moment, so we are most grateful for our supporters such as Tysons who have been with Sunset Golfing society for years now," added Odhiambo.

Historically, Sunset Golfing Society was founded in 1996 by a few golfers who included Otieno Aboka, John Juma, Victor Kidiwa, Barth Ragalo, the late Tim Onyango, and Jaff Olende among others.

 The Society has now grown and has over 250 members. Other than playing golf, it has also started CSR activities to support less fortunate people in the society. Currently, the Society is paying Secondary Schools fees to students who passed KCPE, but lacked school fees to join Secondary Schools. The idea is to make sure many students go through school.

Besides some of the Nairobi based clubs, Friday’s event has attracted players from Kisumu with some of the players to watch besides the captain, including Muthaiga’s Maurice Kanjejo, Elijah Adul, former Sunset chairman Barth Ragalo among others.

During the weekend, Muthaiga will host the third leg of the Extreme Golf series, sponsored by Crown Paints limited where over 200 players were drawn to battle it out. This is the first official event Muthaiga is hosting since March, though members have been playing in Club-nites and friendly events.

The first and second legs of the series were held at Limuru Country Club and Vet Lab Sports Club. From Muthaiga, the series will move to Kiambu, Royal, Karen, Sigona and finally at Nakuru Golf Club.

Meanwhile at the par 72 Vet Lab Sports Club course, 37 pros will be among a field of 150 golfers who will be battling it out in the Safari Tour Pro-Am, the curtain-raiser for the third leg of the Tour.

In Limuru, over 200 players will be featuring in the Julius Wokabi golf tournament.