EDITORIAL
Let us build on the success of Karen Masters
T
he second edition of the
Sunshine Tour KCB Masters
was hugely successful.
Ranging from meticulous
organization to the quality of the
game on display, this event for sure
is taking shape. Having only been
admitted to the circuit last year,
the Karen Masters is increasingly
becoming an important fixture on the
Sunshine Tour.
The rising importance can be
attributed to the bumper prize
money and the timing. Currently
the Karen Masters is the second
richest on the Sunshine Tour with a
total of Kshs 15 million prize money.
To underscore the significance of
the event, all the pros ranked in
the top 10 Sunshine Tour Order
of Merit played at Karen! It is very
encouraging for the event organizers
and spectators when you get the
opportunity to host the best. The
quality of the field was there for all
to see. It’s no wonder that at the end
of the four rounds, we witnessed
a record-breaking winning score
of -26. The fact that all the top
10 finishers recorded double-digit
figures is an attestation of how
competitive the tournament was.
We call upon the tournament
organizers to build on this success
to generate more goodwill from
sponsors and fans. There are
increasing calls for Kenya to host one
or two more events of this caliber.
Refreshingly, the Sunshine Tour
organizers have expressed interest
in admitting one more event staged
in Kenya on their calendar. This is an
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opportunity that the country should
welcome unreservedly. Judging
by the success stories from Kenya
Open and now Karen Masters, the
benefits of hosting international golf
events are enormous! There’s no
better place to showcase Kenya’s
beauty than on the international
golf platforms. The viewership is
incredible both in terms of quality
and quantity. And not to forget how
such tournaments are helping our
local pros to benchmark against the
best.
Amateur golf
After a brief break, the national
amateur team was back on duty
competing in the Region IV
and Victoria Cup. These events
are designed to test our top
amateurs against East Africa’s best.
Unfortunately Kenya fell short in
both tests. Failure to win both events
has been rationalized by Kenya Golf
Union, KGU, the union attributing
the performance to the new team
selection philosophy.
KGU seems to be shifting towards
a 50-50 approach where all teams
selected to represent the country
shall equally comprise of senior
and junior players. This is bold and
encouraging. There’s no better
way to nurture talent than to give
exposure to the juniors more so
on the international stage. This
approach will bear fruit in the
long run only if there is a sense of
consistency and evident technical
development of the selected juniors.
But let us not forget that bragging
rights are also very important in golf.
This will only be earned by beating
our neighbours comprehensively in
all golf competitions. Our ultimate
goal though, should remain to
dethrone South Africa as Africa’s
best.
Sports Act
The Professional Golfers of
Kenya, PGK, is caught up in a
race against time to comply with
the Sports Act. The Act which
has been in place since 2013 was
enacted to bring sanity in sports
organizations. It spells out some
stringent requirements which many
federations, PGK included, are
grappling with. The requirement
that all professional athletes must
be licensed by the government is
particularly proving to be a challenge.
Whereas no specific date has been
provided for full compliance, it is
important for federations to put their
houses in order.
We commend the move by PGK
to rally its members to obtain the
licenses before the end of this
year. It will be very unfortunate if
our professional golfers were to be
barred from playing due to failure to
abide by the requisite administrative
procedures. We believe that the new
procedures will make the federations
more professional and that this
will mark a turning point in PGK’s
fortunes.