KGU
How Team Kenya was humbled at All Africa
Team Championship
Kenya Amateur Team
W
ill African nations ever
compete at the same
level with South Africa?
The gulf in class at the amateur level
was embarrassingly brought to fore
at the just concluded All Africa Team
Championship in Mauritius where
South Africa ran away with the team
title with a margin of 46 strokes! The
trend was replicated in the individual
category where South Africa’s players
clinched the top three places.
This is an event that brought
together the continent’s best
amateur players and was therefore
billed to be a close contest
showcasing Africa’s best. An in-depth
analysis of the players’ performance
however tells a different story.
Kenya was represented at this event
by Samuel Njoroge, Simon Njogu,
Mutahi Kibugu and Zubair Khan. This
is a relatively experienced team that
had just featured at the Region IV
tournament where it lost to Uganda.
It represents a fair mix of experience
and youth, a combination that Kenya
Golf Union is really building on with
an eye on the future.
The Mauritius outing is one which
Team Kenya would love to forget.
Kenya finished seventh, posting
arguably the country’s worst ever
result at an international event. The
going was so tough that only Team
Captain Samuel Njoroge managed
to post one round under par score
throughout the tournament! Kenya
Golf Union Chairman Anthony
Murage who accompanied the
team to Mauritius is unbowed:
“Overall I am satisfied with the
team’s performance. As I have said
before, we have adopted a long term
strategy from 2016 which we expect
to yield the desired results probably
in the coming five years. We shall