KGU
Q: Kenya Golf Union seem to be
losing its shine in the face of its
stakeholders, that is the Golfers,
what are the challenges and what
are you intending to do to stem
this?
A: Losing its shine……am not sure
about that. We still carry-out the
mandate it was formed to do. KGU
is really an association of clubs,
all the golf clubs in Kenya and for
lack of numbers we cannot have a
representative from all the clubs in
the union. We do so from the big
clubs and I believe that we have,
over the years, carried out that
mandate that the clubs have given to
us. Which is, managing the handicaps
systems, getting courses rated and
managing the elite amateur squad in
the country both junior and senior.
That’s really our mandate which I still
believe we’ve carried out well. Eh!
With regards to losing its shine am
not sure, KGU is not the boss, the
clubs are our boss, you understand?
And then again with the limited
resources because we have to take
care of our members’ money by using
it for exactly what it was meant to be
used for. We are very careful not to
overstep our mandate, of course and
unless we are advised to, by member
clubs.
Q: What are the current challenges
KGU is going through?
A: Limited funds, limited funds!! This
is our biggest challenge. As you may
be aware, handicapped members of
golf clubs pay us Sh3000 as annual
subscriptions for administration of
handicap systems and other things
that we are meant to do. Over the
last seven years, we’ve found it very
difficult to do more than what they
ask us to do. We would want to do
much more as a Union, we would
want to take up more responsibilities
if they asked us to. If we can, I know
we would have to ask them in an
extra ordinary general meeting, I
know they would agree, but the
resources are so limited. We actually
find that the money we receive at
the beginning of the year by the time
we reach the end of the year, we
are left with coins. Literally, almost
nothing.
Junior golfers on parade after Tannahil 2019
Q: How did you get to such a low
point?
A: We used to run, on behalf of
sponsors, events as KGU and they
used to pay us a sanction fee to
run those series. But now what has
happened is that, most of these
sponsors are going directly to the
golfers through the clubs so instead
of dealing with us to run the series,
they’ll go to Karen, they’ll go to
Muthaiga, they’ll go to Nakuru and
market their products directly with
the golfers and therefore cutting
out the extra money KGU used to
make over the years. You see for
sponsors, their target is to market
their products to the golfers and that
they can do directly with the clubs.
Which we were happy, because you
see at the end of the day, the golfer
benefits from the sponsorships of
the events in their clubs and sponsor
gets to market their wares directly,
it’s okay.
Q: So how are you planning to
navigate this scenario?
A: What we are trying to do this year
to get off the ground, and hopefully
next year it would have fully taken
off, is introducing the International
Pairs tournament. We are charging
players, Sh3000, per person to
compete. The tournaments will be
played across 14 members clubs. Six
people will qualify for the finals to be
held in Portugal in November 2019.
Hopefully, there will be appetite by
golfers, we are alive to the fact that
Sh3000 in not little money. Only
some people will see the benefit of
trying their chance at an all-expense
paid trip. We are hoping to make a
little surplus, after buying tickets,
paying for (players) accommodation
in Portugal, which we intend to run
junior golf campaigns across the
country, especially in schools. You