•The sons of veteran golfer Dan Kagwe will be hoping to make all their home advantage count.
…This will be the first time the two brothers will be representing the country at the same time in the iconic Kenya Open.
Image: FILE
Kenyan youngsters and siblings Mutahi and Njoroge Kibugu are ready to punch above their weight on the home course as the 2023 Magical Kenya Open gets underway on Thursday at the Par-71 Muthaiga Golf Club.
The sons of veteran golfer Dan Kagwe will be hoping to make all their home advantage count.
This will be the first time the two brothers will be representing the country at the same time in the iconic Kenya Open.
While Njoroge will represent the country as one of the six amateurs, his elder brother Mutahi is among the eight pros Kenya will field at the prestigious event.
Njoroge goes into the four-day 72-hole stroke-play tournament spurred on by his past international experience.
Njoroge, who was the national junior team captain last year, finished third overall in his chase for the individual title in the All Africa Junior Golf Challenge at the Palm Hills Golf Course in Giza, Cairo, Egypt.
Njoroge delighted the home crowd at last year’s Kenya Open as he finished round two birdie-eagle to put himself right in contention heading into the weekend.
The then 18-year-old is a member at Muthaiga Golf Club and he made all that local knowledge count as a bogey-free 66 moved him to six under on home soil. While Mutahi has played in only one European Tour event at Karen in 2019, Njoroge has been to two.
Njoroge (19) will be making just his third DP World Tour appearance also after missing the cut at the 2021 Kenya Savannah Classic .
Mutahi, on the other hand, had a go for the 2022 Sunshine Tour as he participated in a number of events..
Born on January 15, 2001, Mutahi finished 139th in the 2019 Kenya Open and will be looking for his maiden DP World Tour cut on home soil.
In 2021, Mutahi Kibugu had qualified as the top junior in Kenya but his caddie tested positive for Covid-19 and since they had traveled in the same taxi from Muthaiga, he was not allowed to participate. Adel Balala was called upon to fill the void he left behind.
Meanwhile, preparations for this year’s Magical Kenya Open are at an advanced stage, according tournament director, Patrick Obath.
Obath expounded : “We are beginning to push sustainability as a key facet of the tournament and the key thing we are looking at is that we don’t want to use the pet bottles when people drink. So we are going to change that for the players and spectators coming in as well. We are going to make sure that whatever is collected here as refuse is treated in a careful manner that we are able to recycle it and reuse it if we can. When you look at the tournament set up this year, you’re going to see a lot of sustainability issues.”
Obath added that this year, the organisers will strive to expose local talent amongst the events which will take place in the village.
“We have various stakeholders including the government to make sure we sort out all the nitty-gritty,” he said.