Kenyan Chanelle Wangari will be the first Kenyan to tee off in the first round of the 2023 Magical Ladies Kenya Open, set to start at 8:00 AM at the par-72 PGA Baobab Course, Vipingo Ridge.
The 16-year-old will be on tee alongside Helen Tamy Kreuzer (GER), Agathe Laisne (FRA), Clara Manzalini (ITA) off the first tee and that of Maria Hernandez (ESP), Louise Duncan (SCO) and Tereza Melecka (CZE) off the tenth, will get the first round underway.
Highly ranked amateur, Wangari, who has so far won the Kenya Ladies Open Amateur Championship and Faldo Series Kenya Championship, will get her round underway at 8:11AM from the first tee, alongside Lucie Malchirand of France and Sara Kjellker of Sweden.
The other four Kenyan players will all tee off in the afternoon with Naomi Wafula teeing off the first at 1:31 PM in the company of Alice Hewson of England who was ranked 19th in last year’s Race to Costa Del Sol, and Aditi Ashok of India.
Mercy Nyanchama, Jacqueline Walter and Nancy Wairimu will all tee off between 12:58 and 1:42 PM off the tenth. Botswana’s Nobuhle Dlamini, the only other African in the field, will also be teeing off within this time band, on the tenth.
Two-time winner Esther Henseleit will have Johanna Gustavsson of Sweden and Christine Wolf of Austria for company as she gets her campaign off to a start for a third Magical Kenya Ladies Open title at 1:20PM. Pia Babnik of Slovenia, who is the highest ranked player in the field, will get her round underway at 9:06 AM, from the tenth tee, in the company of Sanna Nuutinen (Finland) and Sophie Witt (Germany).
Highly ranked amateur Avani Prashanth (India), with 25 top ten finishes and ten wins, will tee off at 8:22AM on the tenth, with Felicity Johnson (England) and Lisa Pettersson (Sweden).
The field of 96 will be playing for a total prize fund of 300,000 Euros, with the field set to be cut at the end of round two