Kenya squad to be picked

What you need to know:

  • Kenya’s final team for this year’s East Africa Golf Challenge Cup in Dar es Salaam will be announced next Wednesday.

  • The eight players will be picked from a squad of 12 players who have been in training under national coach John van Liefland. The eight will include the country’s two leading juniors Mutahi Kibugu of Muthaiga Golf Club and Nyali Golf and Country Club’s Agil Is- Haq.

  • Though the two have been attending the training, their names had already been submitted by the Junior Golf Foundation (JGF) to fill in the slots usually reserved for juniors in the team.

Kenya’s final team for this year’s East Africa Golf Challenge Cup in Dar es Salaam will be announced next Wednesday.

The eight players will be picked from a squad of 12 players who have been in training under national coach John van Liefland. The eight will include the country’s two leading juniors Mutahi Kibugu of Muthaiga Golf Club and Nyali Golf and Country Club’s Agil Is- Haq.

Though the two have been attending the training, their names had already been submitted by the Junior Golf Foundation (JGF) to fill in the slots usually reserved for juniors in the team.

This means the coach will now have to pick six players from the remaining squad of 10 namely John Karichu (Limuru Country Club), Edwin Mudanyi, Mike Kisia (Vet lab Sports Club), Alfred Nandwa, Samuel Njoroge (Railway Golf Club) and Joseph Gathumbi from Thika Sports Club.

Others who the coach may consider include Dennis Saikwa, Kenneth Bollo (Royal Nairobi Golf Club), Robinson Owiti(Vet lab) and Limuru’s Paul Muchangi.

This year, the East Africa Challenge Cup which brings together countries in the East African Community and Ethiopia, and which the East African Golf Confederation is planning to convert into a Region Four Championship, is set for August 23 to 26 at Dar es Salaam Gymkhana Club.

It had earlier been scheduled to take place at KiliGolf Resort in Usa River, some 36km from Arusha on the Arusha/Moshi highway. It was however moved to Dar es Salaam due to flight connection problems to some of the participating countries.

Meanwhile, Vet Lab Sports Club’s Edwin Mudanyi regained his second place in the Kenya Amateur Golf Championship(KAGC) series points standing following home victory last weekend in the 2017 Kabete Open.

Mudanyi, who carded rounds of 76, 71 and 74 for 221 gross, earned 84 points towards the KAGC series for a total of 341.9 points which leaves him just 12 points behind current leader John Karichu, who made only 13.6 points, after tying in seventh place on 229 gross with a total of 353.9 points.

On the other hand, another Vet Lab player Mike Kisia, who won the Coast Open a few weeks back, dropped to third place on 327 after tying for the second place on 225 with Nyali’s Agil Is-Haq. There is still eight more events before the grand finale, the Nyali Open on December 8 to 10.

Meanwhile, the Railway Invitational which counts towards the KAGC series and which was scheduled for this weekend at Kenya Railway Golf Club, was postponed to a later date due to the national elections issues.

That leaves only three club events at Vet Lab, Thika and Muthaiga Golf Clubs this weekend. Of the three, the Amerucans Golf Day at Muthaiga has attracted a huge field of over 250 golfers including guests drawn from various clubs in the country, while Thika will be the venue of the Medal No. 8 and  Vet Lab will stage a monthly Mug.