Heritage

More should be done to lift Tannahill golf event

golf

Royal Nairobi Golf Club Tannahill Team celebrates winning Tanna Hill Shield Golf Tournament during an earlier tournament. FILE PHOTO | NMG

This past Easter weekend, the Royal Nairobi Golf Club, Kenya’s oldest golf club, successfully staged the 95th edition of the Tannahill Shield, also known as the Easter Tournament. First played in 1924 the event was renamed The Tannahill Shield in 1938 when the widow of the late Arthur Tannahill donated the shield that teams play for to date.

The Tannahill Shield, an invite only elite amateur event is Kenya’s and East Africa’s most prestigious tournament; indeed, one can argue that it has no equal across Africa and as I have averred over the years, this tournament has the potential to grow into a renown global event of note.

Royal won this 95th staging of the event with a score of 43 points, beating Western Kenya team by a single point. Mombasa finished in third place with 37 points, one ahead of Muthaiga. Railways finished fifth with 34 points whilst Vet Lab were sixth with 32 points. I was surprised to learn that veteran golfer Gurbux Singh from Mombasa now plays for his old club, Vet. The Limuru warriors struggled and finished seventh with 28 points whilst Sigona could only manage eighth place with 21 points. Windsor hit the ‘reset’ button and finished last with 15 points.

In my April 13, 2017 Business Daily article, I posed the question; “Can Tannahill Shield change or improve?” In that piece, I raised questions around the format – the event is played exclusively in the foursomes format. Would adopting the Ryder Cup system improve the event? I also asked if women would ever be allowed to take part or even attend the Sunday lunch. Royal introduced a junior Tannahill competition – and this has been excellent, a great addition.

One of the other issues I agitated for at the time included the invitation of a Thika combined team, a Central team if you like; a side that would include golfers from Golf Park, Machakos, Thika, Ruiru, Nyeri and Nanyuki. I proposed that such a team would greatly add to the ‘colour’ of the tournament, allowing these clubs to also participate in this great event. I also proposed that Mombasa Golf Club lose their ‘sister’ title and the immunity from relegation that comes with that title, and that instead a Coast team be invited – a mix of the best golfers from Nyali, Mombasa, Vipingo, Malindi and Leisure Lodge.

At the conclusion of the event this year, the possibility of inviting a Thika team was announced by the Royal Chairman, David Gaitho. He also hinted on the possibility of inviting international teams, an idea that is about 50 years overdue in my opinion! Both ideas have been broached before; it is time to make them a reality.

On April 10, 2015, I described the Tannahill Shield as “our Ryder Cup, our World Cup, our Super Bowl.” I went on to describe it as, “the Ferrari, the Bentley of all golf events on this land.” Royal Nairobi Golf must do more to ensure that this event takes its rightful place at the top of the sporting calendar.