KGU
know there are a lot of schools with
an appetite for golf, of course it’s
not in the curriculum, on free days,
lunchtime, whatever. There are a few
schools who’ve asked, can you send
a coach here with some clubs on the
football field, you know, where they
can just chip a few balls. We have
several costs to cater for. We have a
coach; we have a bus but we would
like now to talk about 10, 12, 15
coaches going around the country
through the counties and running
this programmes. With the current
cash that we generate from the
subscriptions, we cannot. Now we
are looking at this alternate route, to
raise some more money.
Q: How are corporate partnerships
coming through?
A: You cannot go to corporates
with a concept. You must go with a
property and that’s why we must get
it off the ground by ourselves first.
When it is running, up and about,
that’s when we can now approach
the corporates and ask them, will you
support? And that’s why we need
Anthony Murage with Team Kenya in Burundi
20
this money from the International
pairs to run a full leg round the
country, Coast, Rift, Western, Central
and Nairobi. By putting something
together for four to five months then
now go and look for corporates to
sponsor and I believe they will; but
in its current form, it’s very difficult,
very difficult!
Q: What’s your plan for nurturing
junior golfers?
A: That is something that we’re
considering seriously and we have
meetings with JGF to iron out
some of the teething issues. We
have agreed on how we can utilize
members clubs during the school
holidays to reach as many children
as possible. Let’s face it, golf is a
very expensive sport, we don’t
have sponsorships to enable us
tap into raw-talent like they do in
first world countries like the R&A
who have a big budget does. Right
now, a club like this, Karen or even
Royal Nairobi to get more members
children interested in golf rather
than soccer or rugby or any other
sport is tough. Now, if a sport isn’t
competitive, most likely they’ll not
have an interest in it. Within the
Nairobi District League which is quite
popular, we agreed with the clubs
to start a junior league which will be
played between the months of July
and August with a few matches in
the month of April when we have a
shorter break, taking advantage of
this period since both the local and
international curriculums are on a
break for maybe a week or two. They
play a couple of matches, Nairobi,
Coast, Rift Central and then the main
league is in the month of August
when we have a longer break. Get
them competing, both boys and girls
within all the ages, you know, there’s
six and below and then there’s the
seven to 12 years and then 13 to