As the Safaricom Golf Tour gets closer to its grand finale in Vipingo, last weekend the action was at Kericho Golf Club where there was the usually corporate tournament on Saturday and the junior tournament and golf clinic on Sunday. Kericho’s junior tournament saw an impressive 61 aspiring golfers from the region and its environs and the clinic that usually involves training saw a total of 67 juniors attend.
We had the opportunity to speak to Eunice Cherono, who is the Lady Captain at Kericho Golf Club on her work and what the club is doing towards promoting golf among juniors in Kericho. We also spoke to 62-year-old Zakayo Sigei who has been Eunice’s caddie for the last five years.
Eunice Korir has been playing golf for the last four years and currently has a handicap of 19. Her role as lady captain of the club is to coordinate ladies’ tournaments which the club holds monthly, and she’s also part of the golf committee. The ladies also hold joint tournaments with the men.
Eunice is very grateful to Safaricom for having Kericho Golf Club as part of the golf tour and especially for having a junior’s program. This is moreso because already, the club has existing programs for drawing juniors into the game, working with schools around. They also actively urge members to bring their children to the course.
She appreciates Safaricom’s keen interest in junior golf since the current adult players need people to pass the baton to, and nurturing and supporting kids early enough is the only way to go. This is the essence of the whole junior tournaments, clinics and outreach that are part of the Safaricom Golf Tour.
Zakayo Sigei who as mentioned earlier is Eunice’s caddie started working in the golf course in 1970. He was still a student then, but he needed to work part time to earn some money to help out at home. Over the years with the money he earned at the course and from other jobs, the father of three has managed not only to raise his family, but also to start one tea farm for himself and one for his father.
Zakayo sees a big difference in golf since the 70s in that these days it is more inclusive. He is happy to witness even more inclusion with the deliberate nurturing of kids and he hopes that initiatives like Safaricom Golf Tour lives long.
Other than the golf clinics that are part of every tour, more support that junior golf is receiving is from a partnership between Safaricom and Junior Golf Foundation. Under this, juniors can register with Junior Golf Foundation (JGF) for Ksh.1,000/- and have access to any golf club in the country to play Golf. This is a major step as it removes most of the financial barrier to entry, and that is cost.
Junior Golf Foundation currently has 1,600 registered kids and there are many more who play but are not registered. This right here is why the Safaricom Golf Series is so important to the foundation because now they can travel to different parts of the country. They can access junior golfers in regions outside of Nairobi and Mombasa, give them a golf foundation card and support them with the resources that they need.
From here the tour which has attracted 4,800 golfers so far heads to Kitale on June 11 for its tenth leg.