Tannahill Shield highlight of Easter action

The stage is set for the first round of the 2019 Tannahill Shield golf tournament as 90 star amateur golfers representing nine clubs converge on the par-72 Royal Nairobi Golf Club course this afternoon marking the start of the event’s 95th anniversary.

The biggest and most prestigious interclub foursomes event in the country and East African region - the Tannahill Shield also known as “Easter Weekend tournament" - comes two days after the conclusion of the Tannahill Shield Junior tournament which attracted six teams from five clubs and where hosts Royal claimed the Shield for the first time since the junior event was introduced in 2017.

The nine teams participating in the three-day tournament sponsored by Betway and Jamii Telecom are Railway, Muthaiga, Windsor, Limuru, Royal, Mombasa, Sigona, Vet Lab and Western Kenya which is made up of players from various clubs from the region.

During last year’s hotly contested event, hosts Royal beat Vet Lab 5-3 and halved 4-4 with Muthaiga for a total of 45 points to win by three points.

The hosts will, therefore, be going all out to try and defend the Shield from among other teams, arch-rivals Muthaiga who have won the Shield more times than any other club.

With their junior team having set the pace, the senior Royal players will be under a lot of pressure not to let down their juniors, some of whom will also be in the senior team. But the will miss the services of Dennis Saikwa who is now a professional.

Also missing in this year’s Royal line-up will be former captain and chairman of the club Paul Ichangi and Abner Onsumu. But veteran Joseah Kogo (team captain), Jatinder Thethy, Jay Sandhu, Qurram Bhatti, Kevin Juma, Rachit Patel and Joshua Ichangi remain in the team.

They are joined by juniors Njogu Kungu, Wambugu Ikinu and Korby Gatiramu who captained the junior side. It is certainly a strong team and coupled with home course advantage definitely starts as hot favourites. On the other hand, the giants Muthaiga are also parading a strong side particularly having picked up Windsor’s top junior Taimur Malik to play for them. Besides Malik, other juniors in the Muthaiga team are Zubair Khan and Mutahi Kibugu.

Spearheading the Muthaiga challenge will be veteran Evans Vitisia, a former rugby star alongside leading players Anthony Irungu, John Gitonga, Bo Ciera and Bhavnish Chandaria.

Another strong team that Royal will have to watch out for is Mombasa which has this time brought a number of juniors such as Zayan Din, Adel Balala, Mathew Wahome and Andrew Wahome. Also in the Mombasa team is Kenya Amateur MatchPlay champion Daniel Nduva, his bother George Munyao and William Kaguta.

This will be the first time Railway and Windsor are meeting in the event. Over the years, it has always been the case that either Windsor is in and Railway out or the other way round until last year when both of them survived relegation as Karen was relegated.

Going by the first round draw, defending champions Royal will kick off the campaign with a match against Railway and Limuru from 12 noon from the first tee, followed by the Muthaiga versus Western and Mombasa while be Vet Lab will take on Sigona and Windsor on the back nine.

There will be two rounds tomorrow where the second round will tee off at 7.30am also from both the first and 10th tees, followed by the third round from 1pm. The fourth and final round will take place on Sunday from 7.30am. Despite the current dry weather, the Royal Nairobi Golf Club management has tried its best to make sure that the course is in good condition.

Meanwhile, Ruiru Sports Club which is not part of the clubs participating in the Tannahill Shield at Royal will host a field of 200 golfers who will be battling it out for an array of prizes on offer as golfers mark the Easter weekend with the Haco Industries golf tournament.

Besides home players, the event has attracted a number of other top amateur golfers from a number of other clubs in what promises to be a big showdown between the home and the visitors.

Among the locals who have been enjoying great form lately include players like Davies Kibui, Bernard Omondi, Frank Munyua, Veronica Mwaura and Margaret Kamau who are expected to lead the home charge.