It’s time to grow local amateur competitions into regional events

The Karen Country Club hosts the Karen Challenge this weekend.

The annual elite amateur championship is played over 54 holes. To participate in the Karen Challenge, you have to be male, for starters and your golf handicap must be nine or better. This is a competition for the so called ‘single-handicap-golfers’!

I want to focus on two issues with regards to the Karen Challenge; the first is the fact that the members of the club will be giving up their right to the golf course Saturday and on Sunday morning – something they have done for many decades now to allow the very best amateur golfers in the country to compete.

And, the club goes to great lengths to host and sponsor this event and to prepare the golf course to championship standards. Not extra-ordinary you might say; but if you consider that the majority of golfers at Karen this weekend will be non-members and drawn largely from the caddy ranks, you begin to understand just how inclusive golf is and just how welcoming the male species of the golf fraternity is.

Let me make that clear – the guys who pay to keep Karen in great shape, the members, the captains of industry and Kenya’s leading businessmen and families will essentially be digging deep into their pockets to ensure the golf course is in great shape for golfers who are NOT members and who come mainly from the caddy ranks.

Do you know of any other sport that does that? And perhaps this is the face of golfers that is not told – that across the country, golf members give up their golf course on a very regular basis to allow elite amateurs to compete and practice. They give up their golf courses for charity fundraisers and they give up their golf courses for the professional golfers to play.

If you don’t believe me, come to the Karen Country Club this weekend and watch Kenya’s top amateur golfers not only play brilliant golf, but get treated as equals and with respect and honour befitting of their status.

Now, enough with the niceties. I have an issue with the Karen Challenge, Sigona Bowl, Nyali Open, Muthaiga Open, Limuru Open, Barry Cup and even the Tannahill Shield. I would like to see progress.

For years, these top events have flat-lined, they have failed to attract meaningful sponsorship, they have failed to grow into regional events and frankly I don’t think the golf leadership has any strategy for them going forward.

For many years, the clubs have seen these events as interruptions to their calendar of events and the union has frankly failed to inject the necessary catalyst to make these events great.

And it shouldn’t be difficult, we can actively seek to invite the top amateurs in Africa and from around the world – you see, hosting amateur golfers is relatively cheap, all it costs is airfare and accommodation, there is no prize money.

Perhaps I am suggesting something close to the rugby Safari Sevens model. In years gone, the Karen Challenge consistently hosted amateurs from South Africa, not anymore. We don’t even get golfers from Uganda!

For these events to become exciting and attract the right attention, the union and the clubs must set clear objectives in the medium and long term. Each of these events has the potential to grow and become a championship of international repute. That is my challenge to the golf clubs.