Heritage

Karen club hosts Nancy Millar golf tournament

KAREN

Team Karen members show off their fashionable outfits at a past Nancy Millar golf tournament. PHOTO | COURTESY

One of the best, most colourful women events — the annual Nancy Millar golf tournament — will be held this weekend at the Karen Country Club in Nairobi.

The tournament, played in the foursome stableford format, is well known for combining golf and fashion. All participating teams show up in specially designed golf clothes, ordinarily a splash of bright colours.

The prize giving ceremony, on Sunday, will be as elaborate as the golf and dressing. The tournament is worth watching, thank me later.

On the other hand, in case you missed it, England’s Justin Rose is the new world number one for the first time in his illustrious career.

Rose climbed from fourth to first after finishing second at the BMW Championship at the Aronimink Golf Club in Philadelphia, USA.

Rose and Keegan Bradley finished tied at the top after four rounds with excellent scores of 20-under par. In the playoff that followed, Bradley emerged the victor whilst Rose became the top golfer in the world.

Rose becomes the 22nd player in the world to reach the pinnacle of the Official World Golf Ranking since it began in 1986. By the way, Tiger Woods is now ranked 21st on the OWGR; will he ever get back to the top?

Rose, a Major winner, having won the 2013 US Open at Merion Golf Club, and an Olympic Gold medalist at the 2016 Rio games, was born in South Africa to English parents.

When he was five years old they moved to the UK and Rose started playing golf seriously, becoming a plus three-handicap golfer by the age of 14. At the 1998 Open Championship at the Royal Birkdale, Rose finished T4 and received the silver medal, awarded to the low amateur. He was only 17 years old and turned professional immediately after that event.

Rose has not been a prolific winner, he has one major to his name, two World Golf Championships, one FedEx Cup playoff event, five PGA Tour victories and seven European Tour victories.

His record on the Majors in 2018 has been impressive, T12 at the Masters, he was second there in 2017, T10 at the US Open, T2 at the Open Championship and T19 at the PGA Championship. Rose is a member of Team Europe that will participate in the 2018 Ryder Cup at Le Golf National, France.

Championship

The European team will face a much stronger Team USA which includes Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Rose and his European colleagues will have to dig deep to mount a good defence at home.

The BMW Championship was itself full of drama; the fourth round could not be played on Sunday due to bad weather and according to the rules of the Tour, if only less than half the field managed to complete their fourth rounds on Monday, the round would be cancelled and the result declared based on the 54-hole results.

Had the Championship been called based on the 54 hole result, Rose would have been declared the winner. As it turns out, they did play the final round on Tuesday and Rose lost the ensuing playoff to Bradley.

Team USA announced Tony Finau as their 12th and final member to the 2018 Ryder Cup. Team USA Captain Jim Furyk picked the long-hitting Finau to join the team that will square off with Team Europe at the 42nd Ryder Cup.

Finau has registered 11 top-10 finishes in the current PGA Tour season and this will be his first Ryder Cup appearance.