Humid Kisumu ready for Snow

Chris Omollo| DAILY NATION Fans follow Kenyan golfer Greg Snow during the Barclays Kenya Open. Kenyan professionals, including snow, resume their local season on April 06, 2011 with the Kenya Commercial Bank series tournament in Kisumu.

By LARRY NGALA lngala@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Tuesday, April 5 2011 at 23:22

Kenyan professional golfers return to local action after last weekend’s Barclays Kenya Open at Muthaiga where four of them and two of the country’s leading amateurs made it to the final two rounds.

At least 24 pros arrived in Kisumu on Tuesday for the third leg of the 2011 KCB East Africa Golf Tour, the KCB Savings and Loan Mortgages Classic at the lake-side Nyanza Golf Club course.

The 24 pros who will battle for a share of the prize fund of Sh500,000 and they include Muthaiga’s Greg Snow and Rapid Communications sponsored Nicholas Rokoine who were both on the leaderboard after two rounds at Muthaiga during the Open.

Excellent form

The two, along with Nakuru’s Richard Ainley, home pro David Odhiambo, Kiambu’s Peter Njagi and Railway’s Njuguna Ngugi, have been in an excellent form over the past two months irrespective of how they performed during the open.

KCB East Africa Tour champion Simon Ngige is also drawn.

Among the players to watch out for will be the Mumias Sugar’s Dismas Indiza, who was one under par in the third round of the Open until he picked an eight at the par three 13th after hitting to the water twice.

The pros are playing four rounds from today, and will be joined by amateurs during Saturday’s fourth round. The pros will also conduct a free golf clinics on Friday at 4.30pm after their round.

This year, KCB has invested a total of Sh8.7 million for the East African Golf Tour which includes a bonus for the best placed professional in the KCB Order of Merit.

This year the tour includes four regional events offering one million prize money. The first one was held at Muthaiga a month ago where home pro Snow emerged as the winner.

The next regional round will be held at Arusha Gymkhana in May followed by one at Kigali Golf Club in Rwanda also in May while the last one will take place at Uganda Golf Club Kampala in July.

The series’ grand finale will take place at Nyali Golf and Country Club Mombasa in August.

This is the fourth year KCB is sponsoring the KCB East Africa Tour which attracts well over 50 professionals from the East African region.

“The KCB East African Golf Tour is now bigger and better and plays a big role in promoting our regional brand through the inclusion of events in Arusha, Kampala and Kigali,” said KCB’s Divisional Director Public Affairs and Communications Kepha Bosire.

The series is a culmination of a lot of effort to nurture the Tour, formerly the KCB Pro-Am golf series, into an international standard golf tour.