Kenya: Snow Tops List

Nairobi Star (Nairobi)

Samson Ateka

18 March 2011

Fresh from winning the second round of the KCB East Africa Tour at his Muthaiga home course, fast-rising Greg Snow will be returning to the familiar territory incidentally among 20 professionals entered for the Kenya Open 2011.

The Barclays Kenya Open, the 43rd edition of the Championship, tees off on March 31 through to April 3 at the par 71 Muthaiga Golf Club.

Greg has been tipped as the next big thing on the Kenyan professional front and it will be interesting to see how he fares against foreigners.

Professional Golfers of Kenya (PGK) chairman Charan Thethy while making the announcement yesterday said the selection process was based partly in the order of merit of the regional KCB Golf Tour as well as “a criteria known as ‘Tour Players’.”This is the kind of system whereby Kenyan pros who played outside the country on main tours such as the Sunshine Tour Challenge and from the last Kenya Open are considered,” he said.

Charan also said five players will remain on the reserve list just in case any of the 20 pros drops out. The reserve list has Thethy, Fred Kamau, Paul Thuo, M. Vimacia and Hesbon Kutwa.

Dismas Indiza, one of the top five professional players in Kenya, is in the team as well as Thika Sports Club’s Simon Ngige and Ali Kimani, the man who led the championship last year, only to dip under pressure in the four-day extravaganza.Golf Park’s Jacob Okello is also in the team and so is Nakuru-based Richard Ainley and South Africa-based Anil Shah.

Others in the Kenya team are-Hardeep Thethy, Ganeev Giddie, Brian Njoroge, Richard Ainley, Nicholas Rokoine, David Odhiambo, Anil Shah, Kopan Timbe, Peter Njiru, James Lorum, David Wakhu, Rizwan Charania, John Kagiri, N. M. Ngugi and John Kiondo.

Barclays Kenya Open is one of the events that meet and maintains the standards of the PGA specifications and recommendation, with excellent facilities and a golf course.

Former Kenya Open and most prolific winner on the PGA tour with 8 wins to his credit, Iain Pyman, will grace the event this year. Also back is Andre Bossert, who won the Kenya Open in 1992 at Muthaiga.

The African legion has the likes of Gboyega Oyebanji and Lateef Lasisi (Nigeria), Chris Gerhaty (Egypt), Tongo Charamba (Zimbabwe) and Ignatius Mketekete (Zimbabwe). Scott Drummond, former PGA tour winner including Volvo PGA Championship in 2004 will also grace the occasion. This year’s prize money for the championship is 190,000 euros (Sh22.8m), raised mostly from many local corporate sponsors.

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