Juniors golfers set to rule the game

The growth of Junior golf in Kenya through the last few years is phenomenal, exciting and spells out the future of the sport in the country.

While we must thank the Kenya Golf Union (KGU) and the Junior Golf Foundation (JGF) for putting in place several interventions for growing the game among the juniors, most of the credit goes out to parents who spend large sums of money and time to support their children.

The junior golf programmes at the Nyali, Muthaiga, Karen, Sigona and Windsor clubs have produced and will continue to produce Kenya’s future professional players. Indeed, I believe that the first Kenyan winner of the prestigious Kenya Open Golf Championship will be from the current crop of talented, bold and focused junior players.

The current Kenyan professionals and top elite (but unfortunately ageing) amateur players will not produce a Kenya Open winner.

KGU and JGF have made great strides in ensuring the face of the elite amateur national team was “young”. For the last three years or so, the Kenya team to the East African Challenge and the Africa Golf Championship has included a good number of junior players.

Unfortunately, KGU has not been bold enough to axe the old amateur players who have absolutely no competitive future in golf and replace them with deserving juniors who have the world golfing world in front of them.

This past week, Kenya’s top juniors have been playing in a 54-hole competition at the Karen Country Club. And the results have been great.

Nyali’s Tahir Mohammed finished tops with a good score of 10-over par 226 through 54-holes and his training partner Matthew Wahome finished second 3-strokes behind him.

The 14-year Muthaiga Golf Club junior girl Kellie Gachaga, playing off a handicap of nine, finished in third place with a score of 239 gross, 23-over through 54-holes.

Although Kellie’s score was not earth shattering, the fact that she beat Dev Syan, Kirshna Sarna, Agil Is Hag and Adel Balala will be a great moral booster for her. Kellie also played well within her handicap and finished runner up in the net category.

The competition and more importantly comradeship that has grown between this crop of junior golfers and perhaps also between their guardians is and will continue to be the driving force for Kenyan golf in years to come.

The efforts of Taufiq Balala, the Munyao and Wahome families in Nyali, Alfred Gachaga, Rajeev Mediratta and many other parents who support junior golf will bear fruit for the sport in the near future as the players fly the Kenyan flag on the PGA Tours and LPGA Tours around the world.

My prayer to the KGU is that they spare us the sound of creaking bones at the 2015 Kenya Open and instead offer our budding juniors the six amateur slots available.

Allow these juniors to cut their teeth at the Kenya Open and contribute to what will most certainly be an illustrious career.