King of the Course event moves to Ruiru

What you need to know:

  • Formerly the ICEA Lion Group golf day, this weekend’s tournament will be the first corporate tournament at Ruiru Sports Club this year.
  • It is the second year in a row ICEA Lion is visiting the Thika highway facility that has become one of the most popular corporate golf destination.

An huge field of 250 golfers drawn from various clubs in the country will be parading at the par 72 Ruiru Sports Club course in Ruiru this weekend for the ICEA Lion King of the Course second leg which comes barely a week after the first leg at Machakos Golf Club.

Formerly the ICEA Lion Group golf day, this weekend’s tournament will be the first corporate tournament at Ruiru Sports Club this year. It is the second year in a row ICEA Lion is visiting the Thika highway facility that has become one of the most popular corporate golf destination.

“We are grateful to have been included in the now country-wide King of the Course golf series and will do everything to make sure that we meet not just the expectations of the sponsors but also those of the people who came up with this great golfing idea," said Ruiru captain Peter Mwaura.

“The course is playing relatively easy with the light rains around. It is going to be an exciting year opener for our members with lots of exciting prizes on offer," added Mwaura, who will be among those chasing the ICEA Lion King Of Course title where he will be competing against some of the players who have been in great form lately.

STIFF COMPETITION

The club’s 2019 champion Chris Andrea currently playing off handicap four, club chairman James Muraguri, Ben Omondi and lady golfers Catherine Wambui and Irene Wamoro have been enjoying great form lately.

Besides the prizes reserved for the members, there will be many other prizes for the more than 50 guests including 13 golfers from Malawi led by Frank Mvalo as well as a strong contingent of 30 players from Machakos led by club chairman Sawran Singh and which also includes the winner of last weekend’s King of the Course Machakos edition James Ndunda.

The weekend action begins at Thika Greens Golf Resort on Friday where the par 72 course which was the venue for the Safari Tour seventh leg earlier this week, will host the ICEA Lion King of the Course club night event. The event dubbed as “The Grand Slam Year Opener" will be featuring the Malawian golfers from Lilongwe Golf Club, Machakos, Nyeri, Limuru and Embu golfers.

Fredrick Njeru Njagi, one of the Embu golfers and a member of the Mountain Classic’s "Tigers" says his members are more than ready to welcome the visiting golfers at Thika Greens.

On the other hand, 42 professionals will be joining more than 150 amateurs at Muthaiga Golf Club for the Safari Tour eighth leg Pro-Am being sponsored by Magical Kenya and Absa Group formerly Barclays Bank of Kenya.

For the pros, this will be a practicing round for the Safari Tour eighth leg whose opening round is scheduled for Sunday. The pros include Nigeria’s Andrew Odoh who is drawn with an elite amateur team of Evans Vitisia, Mutahi Kibugu and Anthony Irungu.

Home pro Greg Snow, who won the Thika Greens edition of the Safari Tour on Wednesday, is paired with Philip Ocholla, D. Mwindi and Christine Ocholla.

Teeing off for those drawn in the morning, start at 7am with another tee off at 11.32am. Like most of the courses in Nairobi and nearby Kiambu County, Muthaiga is expected to be playing long because of the on-going rains though some interesting scores are expected from the pros depending on how the course is set.

A number of the country’s leading lady golfers are meanwhile travelling to Mombasa for the Nyali Golf and Country Club Lady captain’s Prize event which being the first major event of the season at the Coast, has attracted a big field of 150 players. The lady captain Susan Strokes has lined up an array of prizes for both ladies and the men.