• The pros will play a 36-hole two-round stroke-play beginning Friday.
• At stake for pros will be a prize fund of Sh500,000.
Image: OLIVER MORGAN
Dismas Indiza, Greg Snow and David Wakhu are among the top professional headed for the second round of the KCB Road To The Masters series slated for the Par 72 Nyali Golf and Country Club on March 29-30.
CJ Wangai, who is also the Professional Golfers of Kenya (PGK) Captain, Royal’s Eric Ooko and Justus Madoya who recently made a cut in the Magical Kenya Open are also in the Nyali mix and so is Windsor resident pro Rizwan Charania and his Muthaiga counterpart Nelson Mudanyi.
The pros will play a 36-hole two-round stroke-play beginning Friday after which their second round will serve as a Pro-Am on Saturday. At stake for pros will be a prize fund of Sh500,000 which is part of the Sh2,000,000 which KCB Bank has committed for four events while amateurs will be battling to fill six slots for the Karen Masters Pro-Am available in every round of the Road to the Masters.
The Road To the Master series was introduced to help Kenyan professionals prepare for the just concluded Karen Masters while also offering amateurs a chance to brush shoulders with local and foreign professionals in the Pro-Am. The KCB Karen Masters, which is one of newest rounds of the prestigious Sunshine Tour, will be held at the Par 71 Karen Country Club in June.
“It gives us an opportunity to sharpen up our skills well in time for the Sunshine Tour Karen Masters. The good thing is that we are not rest after the Kenya Open as golfers proceed to Nyali for play. We missed out in the first round of the KCB series in Sigona because it coincided with Safari Tour. We are overly excited to be back in the Road to the Masters,” said Wangai.
Handicap 20 Sabo Kalsi of Sigona led the first batch of Pro-Am qualifiers on his home course with an impressive 41 points made up of 21 points in the first nine and 20 at the back nine, beating a huge field of 204 players. Other Masters Pro-Am qualifiers from Sigona were men winner Ishwar Aldasani (H24), guest winner Lee Mungai (H22), staff winner Ogola Azu (H26), the KCB Bank Kenya HR Business partner and lady winner Milka Mburu playing off handicap 26.
The sixth qualifier from the Club was Jolly Esmail who becomes the first player in this year’s series to win a wildcard. The wildcard was decided from a lucky dip conducted on all the score cards returned by the playing field. Among the amateurs expected at Nyali according to resident pro Njuguna Waweru are William Kaguta (h4), Ken Mwige (h13), Taib Bajaber (h11) and Evans Manono (h9). Gurbux Singh playing off handicap 4 will be taking part too.
Njuguna has singled out hole 4 as the toughest. “ It’s a dog leg left, wind off the left. The green is protected by 5 bunkers.” KCB Group Director of Marketing and Communications Angela Mwirigi said: “We are redefining golfing in Kenya by increasingly giving more opportunities to amateur and professional golfers across the country. We believe in growing sports talent for local and international competitions,” Mwirigi underscored.
Image: OLIVER MORGAN