The Royal Golf Club in Nairobi will host the 14th leg of the Safaricom Golf Tour as the inaugural tournament reaches its final stages.
The weekend tournament, which also marks the last stage of the tour before the grand finale scheduled for next week at Vipingo Ridge, has drawn a field of over 350 participants. The corporate tournament is scheduled for Saturday and the juniors will take to the course on Sunday.
“As we approach the end of the first season, we are thrilled with the great milestones achieved in identifying and nurturing talent among our young people. We have engaged over 8,000 participants through our tournaments, outreaches and golf clinics including over 5,000 youngsters, said Peter Ndegwa, CEO, Safaricom.
Last weekend Nelson Nyoike beat a field of 253 golfers to win the 13th leg of the tour held at the Vet Lab Golf Club. Twelve-year-old Belinda Wanjiru and sixteen-year-old Beiju Shah were crowned junior winners after beating a field of 165 players at the same facility.
Just like in the previous editions, Saturday’s corporate tournament will run alongside the golf outreach programme dubbed “Golf Mataani”, where youngsters from the nearby community will get the chance to learn about the game.
Safaricom has invested KES 100 million in this inaugural edition of the tour with an aim of nurturing and growing golf talent.
The Safaricom Golf Tour has been held in 13 golf courses across the country namely: Nanyuki, Limuru, Muthaiga, Nyanza, Machakos, Eldoret, Keren, Nyali, Kericho, Kitale, Nakuru, Kenya Airforce and Vetlab.
After Royal, the tour heads to Vipingo Ridge in Kilifi County for the grand finale, which will see the winners from each leg contest for the grand prize.
As part of growing the sport among junior players in the country, Safaricom has partnered with the Junior Golf Foundation (JGF) to tap and nurture young talent. The juniors can register with the JGF for KES.1,000, which grants them access to play at any golf club in the country.