Johannesburg-based Haydin Porteous and legendary ex-Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn believe the Karen Country Club Course will require precision hitting.
Speaking during a pre-event interview at Karen, the duo said the Par 71 course will offer a fairly good test of skill to golfers’ abilities this week.
Porteous, who failed to make the cut at last week’s Commercial Bank Qatar Masters where his compatriot Justin Harding won, said he is excited to be back in Kenya with sweet memories of Kenya Open victory in 2015.
“I didn’t play that badly in Doha. It’s only that the conditions were tough and the landscape different from what I expect in Nairobi this week.
"Karen has the same sort of set up which I grew up with back home in Johannesburg. The course is short and the green is relatively small and therefore we need to play quite smart to prevail.
"I feel at home in Karen with the same altitude, same grass and hopefully, same result in 2015 when I won the Kenya Open. I mean it was important for me to win in 2015 against some of the best European professionals,” said Porteous, who had a feel of the venue at Karen yesterday.
He will be among those playing in the Pro-Am today. A year after winning the 2015 Barclays Kenya Open on the Challenge Tour, Porteous won his maiden European Tour title with a two-stroke victory at the Jo’burg Open. This was a co-sanctioned event with the Sunshine Tour.
Following Brandon Stone’s win the previous week, Porteous’ win was the second consecutive European Tour win by a South African first-time winner.
Bjorn, who skippered Europe to Ryder Cup victory last year, said: “Kenya is different. A lot more has happened and I come back here with good memories of 1995 when as a youthful player, I participated in the Kenya Open. From then on, I have always felt like I wanted to come back but just never really happened. I’m glad to be back and looking forward to the week’s action. The greens here are small and quite difficult to hit meaning precision on the greens and fairways will be key. It’s an old style kind of course and should test me in a different way,” Bjorn remarked.
Meanwhile, the Karen course was a beehive of activity yesterday with several pros from Europe practising on the fairways and greens. Several professionals have been at the parting green trying to perfect their short game.
