Ndunda the favourite in Equity Bank tournament

Fresh from his recent victory in the KCB golf tournament, Machakos’ leading golfer James Ndunda will be the man to watch this weekend when the par 72 Machakos Club Course hosts the Equity Bank sponsored tournament.

During the KCB event, Ndunda bogeyed three holes but rolled in a similar number of birdies for a level par 72 which gave him a total of 40 points to beat the handicap 10 Charles Kimiti.

Kimiti is among those drawn in this weekend’s tournament that has attracted an impressive field of 120 players with club captain Musembi Katuku still accepting more players through post entries.

Other players also eyeing the overall prize this weekend are former captain Larry Wambua, Jackson Nzioki, Francis Njeru, club chairman Swarn Singh, Tim Ruhiu, Victor Mutwii, Munyao Kamba and Fred Kilonzi all of whom have been playing well lately.

Katuku says though the course is slightly dry, the greens are in top condition but a bit quicker than usual. "We have done everything possible to make sure that the course is in a perfect condition for the event," said Katuku who thanked Equity for sponsoring a golf event in Machakos for the first time.

“This is our first time to sponsor such an event at Machakos and we decided to do so because we want to give back to the society as well as bringing out clients and potential ones together in a social atmosphere. At the same time, this will also give us an opportunity to market our bank products,’’ said Boniface Kyengo, Equity Bank Machakos branch manager.

In Nakuru, a total of six junior teams drawn from Nairobi, Coast, Mt Kenya, North Rift, Western and hosts Central Rift will be battling it out for Moses Tanui Inter-Regional Junior golf tournament at the par 73 Nakuru Golf Club course from Friday.

Each of those teams will be represented by a team of eight players who will be battling it out with the best nett scores out of the team of eight to count towards the team aggregate. On paper Nairobi, appears very strong and all set to clinch the trophy donated by former Boston Marathon champion Moses Tanui who also hosted the inaugural event at Eldoret Golf Club last year.

Part of the Nairobi team which left Nairobi on Thursday morning alongside the Coast side, is made up of the Kibugu brothers Mutahi and Njoroge, Daniel Kiragu and Korby Gatiramu.

From Coast will be players like Andrew Wahome, Nathan Ngweno and Zayan Din all of whom participated in the just concluded national Junior Stroke Play Championship at Muthaiga.

This year, besides Tanui, the two-day event has also attracted the sponsorship of KCB Bank who have been very keen in supporting junior golf programmes in the country.

Elsewhere, only 48 players were drawn in what looks like a low key 2019 Nyanza Open at the par 70 Nyanza Golf Club course also this weekend where the top players include Samuel Njoroge of Kenya Railway Golf Club, Royal Nairobi’s Kevin Juma and the newly crowned Coast Open golf champion Simon Njogu of the Great Rift Valley Golf Resort in Naivasha.

Three events are meanwhile set for the mountain region’s Nanyuki, Nyeri, and Nyahururu. The Nanyuki Sports Club will host the Phyllis Waweru golf tournament while Nyeri will be the venue for the New KCC tournament.

At the high altitude Nyahururu Sports Club course, there will be the Syngenta Golf day where players from Nakuru, Njoro, and a number of Nairobi based clubs will join home golfers for what promises to be a thrilling weekend. Near home, Thika Sports Club will be staging the Patron’s (Lawrence Ngamau) Putter which has attracted a big field of over 200 players.

The Windhoek International Pairs goes to Limuru Country club for the 11th leg with less than 30 pairs having been drawn though post entries are still being accepted.