Stop using Goty system to pick national team players

The Kenya Golf Union has been under attack for selecting the national amateur golf team through a process other than the KGU Golfer of the Year ranking.

Traditionally, the KGU has selected national teams and even players into the prestigious Kenya Open based on performance on the 18-part, 12-month KGU Goty series.

While this system has been applied and respected by the golfing fraternity, its obvious flaws have been glaring.

To be among the top ranked players in the Goty series, all you need is just above average golfing skills and a lot of time to travel from Kisumu to Kericho to Nyali and Nyeri collecting the odd Goty point here and there.

The Goty system did not care whether your scores were rubbish, or whether you only amassed a huge amount of points in the first six months and then suffered a slump in form or got an injury in the second half.

Goty didn’t care if you were a budding junior golfer with school obligations or a 50-year old man with enough time and diesel for his Land Cruiser VX.

The Goty system has served us for many decades and, while it continues to offer a great series of events for Kenya’s top amateur golfers, selecting players to the national teams and to the Kenya Open through this archaic system is no longer an option.

The Goty ranking is not just about good golf; it’s also about time, something junior golfers with heavy work schedules don’t have the luxury of.

KGU chairman Francis Okwara, in selecting the team to represent Kenya at the Africa Amateur Golf Championships in Cape Town, threw his weight behind a trial-based system, nothing new really — that is how the teams to the Olympics and World Championships are selected.

Following this move, a few players threatened to boycott the Goty series and perhaps even quit golf altogether. I reckon such players must be encouraged to carry out their threats.

What these misguided players are complaining about is a missed plane ride and a chance to see Cape Town. What future does a 40-year old amateur golfer have in the sport? What future does a guy who can’t break 80 at the Kenya Open have?

Why should the union waste a plane ticket on such an individual? Indeed it would be criminal for the union to leave behind junior golfers in the place of monthly mug tourists.

Mr Okwara’s decision must be applauded. A word of caution, however. Among the players to Cape Town was a dubious selection, a so called wild card by coach Anil Shah.

The young Mohit Mediratta was in the country and at Windsor during the trials, why didn’t he participate?

Wild cards are the preserve of family and friends. They are the preserve of deserving individuals who didn’t otherwise make the team.

John Karichu, Kenya’s best amateur was an obvious choice for the wild card selection. Why was he left out? What skill attributes did Mediratta have over him?

But the Kenya Golf Union has taken a bold step towards improving the national team. In that respect, I support them fully.