Kenya Open back in the big time

Kenya Open back in the big time

Karen Country Club This year, for the very first time, the Kenya Open Golf Championship joined the main PGA European Tour – a multi-million dollar cavalcade that in 2019 will stage events in 28 countries outside the Americas.

Played in March this year at the exclusive Karen Country Club (on occasions in the past it has also been staged at the Muthaiga Golf Club), the Magical Kenya Open Presented by Absa attracted professionals from far and wide as well as a sprinkling of Kenya’s top players.

This uprating of the event is a personal feather in the cap for the Hon. Najib Balala, Cabinet Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife, who has personally backed its elevation to the main tour. It’s a shot in the arm, too, for the local game as well as, hopefully, for the tourism sector. European tour events receive pretty much wall-to-wall coverage by the Golf Channel as well as by global networks such as Sky Sports and SuperSport. So, lots of worldwide publicity for Kenya – but at what cost?

The total prize money of €1.1 million was not quite up there with the cash splashed around for many other PGA European Tour events and so, unfortunately, some of the game’s star names were absent. Inside the world’s top 50 the South African golfer Justin Harding was the highest-ranked player in the tournament.

New event

But it can take a while to establish a new tour event in the minds of professionals, so this was a good start and Kenya can hope for bigger and better things next time – especially if the total prize money is increased and with continued sponsorship from Absa.

Interest

Kenya Open Golf Ltd Tournament Director, Patrick Obath, said: “We were pleased with the level of interest the tournament was able to elicit among top players from our key tourism source markets including Europe, Japan, Korea, India and South Africa. The level of golf played over the four days of the tournament was evidence of the level of players we had attracted.”

This year’s event was won by the largely unknown Italian player Guido Migliozzi, who as a result of his triumph has moved up into the world’s top 200.

Sadly, the event has never been won by a Kenyan, but in 2017 England’s Aaron Rai was victorious. Rai has strong family ties with East Africa because his mother was born in Kenya.

Twenty Kenyans (14 pros and six elite amateurs) did qualify for the event and it was a little disappointing that collectively they did not perform well. Thika Golf Club’s Simon Ngige was the bestplaced local player, finishing in tied 25th spot and winning €10,615 for his fine effort. The winner, by the way, pocketed a handy €183,330. Justus Madoya, who plays at Great Rift Valley Lodge and Golf Resort, was the only other Kenyan to make the 36-hole cut (and any prize money), coming home in 72nd place.

Safari tour

The Kenya Open dates from 1967. In those days it was a key event on what was known as the safari tour – a chance for European players to compete for prize money in a handful of African competitions when the weather at home was less than perfect for golf and before Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha fulfilled this role. Sadly, this fondly remembered Africa swing petered out in the 1980s.

All images courtesy of Kenya Magical Open

Since then, Kenya had spent the last 27 years cast to the outer fringes of the satellite European Challenge Tour. Gone are the heady days when the Kenya Open hosted and was won by the likes of legendary Spaniard Save Ballesteros and Welshman Ian Woodsman, both of whom went on to win the prestigious US Masters, perhaps the most sought-after of the game’s four ‘majors’. South African player Trevor Immelman also won the Kenya Open in 2000 when competing on the Challenge Tour and, like Ballesteros and Woodsman, went on to win the Masters eight years later.

So, Kenya has a long and proud history of being an early proving ground for some of the world’s best golfers. And you never know, we may one day see Guido Migliozzi picking up one of golf’s top prizes – even a coveted Master’s green jacket. Better still, and within easier reach, would be for Simon Ngige to eventually join the main European or PGA Tours and really fly the flag for Kenya. But he’ll need a few more top-25 finishes or better before he can begin to dream of doing so.

Champion Guido Migliozzi.

All images courtesy of Kenya Magical Open

ABSA WILL BE HEADLINE SPONSOR

Absa has signed a two-year sponsorship with the Kenya Open Golf Limited so the bank will still be part of the tournament as a headline sponsor in 2020. The Government, through the Kenya Tourism Board and Sports Kenya, will continue to support the tournament for a further three years.

KAREN OR MUTHAIGA FOR 2020?

Patrick Obath explains how and why the Kenya Open Golf Limited chooses who hosts the Kenya Open: “There are challenges in almost all golf clubs in Kenya, including both Karen and Muthaiga, in not having the minimum length of driving range required of 400 yards. Muthaiga also has a severe access restriction between the two nines, which we believe is being attended to.

“On this basis, the Karen Country Club offered the best option in that it had more space to put up spectator infrastructure, the village, parking, etc. It also had high-class hotels nearby for the players. All these considerations made Karen a natural choice. Karen will have additional challenges next year and we are in discussion with several clubs, including Karen, as to which one will offer the best proposal to host the 2020 competition.”