180 players to grace Caddies tournament at Muthaiga Club

A record field of 180 caddie golfers drawn from 18 golf clubs, converge at the par 71 Muthaiga Golf Club this morning for the annual Nginyo Investments Limited sponsored National Caddies tournament.

This is the third year Nginyo Investment are supporting the tournament, courtesy of veteran professional, Lawrence Nginyo, who has been a great supporter of caddie golfers in the country, some of whom went on to become great amateur and professional players.

“These caddies, like club members, need support in form of sponsorships and this is why through Nginyo Investments, I have offered to support the national caddies competition over the years,” said Nginyo, who has been generously enough to invite some of the local pros, especially those who started their careers through the caddie-ranks.

At least 22 of them including Kopan Timbe, Sullivan Muthugia, Simon Ngige, Nelson Simwa, Alfred Nandwa, John Wangai, David Wakhu, Jeff Kubwa, Tony Omuli, Hesbon Kutwa, Frank Matilo, Justus Madoya, Paul Thuo, James Karanja, Kevin Mabele, Erick Ookjo and home pro Nelson Mudanyi will be in action.

Others are Mathew Omondi, Joseph Karanja, John Kagiri, Jimmy Kingori and David Opati. At stake for the pros will be Sh200,000 while as usual, an array of prizes will be up for grab for the amateur caddies who qualified from some grueling club qualifying rounds held on January 7 and 14th.

Of the total field of 180 players, 37 will be women caddies who will be battling it out for a special prize. Save for Windsor, Nyali and Karen, the rest of the clubs have sent both men and women players with hosts Muthaiga having entered the biggest entry of 22 players while Nyali has the smallest number at just three.

Clubs in action inlcude Muthaiga, Karen, Nakuru, Ndumberi, Nyali, Windsor, Railway, Vet Lab, Machakos, Thika Greens, Nyeri, Limuru, Thika, Ruiru, Kiambu, Royal, Sigona and Njoro.

Champion in the men’s category, Simon Njogu from the Great Rift Valley golf and resort in Naivasha will not be defending his title since he is now a honorary member at Great Rift.

This now leaves players like John Karanja and Wafula from Muthaiga, Peter Mburu of Windsor, John Ekai of Vet-lab and John ‘Gonna Do’ Mbugua of Sigona with a good to clinch the title. Defending champion in the women’s category, Mary Gathoni of Sigona is expected to face a strong opposition from players like Mary Rogate of Muthaiga and Virginia Njeri of Railways.