Gicheru and Muthomi are Junior Safaricom champions in Royal

Home junior golfer Mwathi Gicheru and Windsor’s junior Kanana Muthomi have been named winners of the 14^th and last leg of the Safaricom Golf Tour junior tournament held at the Royal Nairobi Golf Club on Sunday.

With only three years in golf, the eleven-year-old Gacheru carded 77 points to emerge the best boy of the tournament. Ten-year-old Kanana Muthomi continued with her stellar performance to produce the overall title for the third time after posting 40 points.

“I have been excited to have played in this year’s Safaricom Golf Tour. It means a lot to me to win this amazing trophy at my home course on the last leg of the Safaricom Golf Tour. I enjoyed it, and I am thankful to Safaricom, as there are not a lot of tournaments where one can get such amazing trophy awards. I struggled a little bit with my first nine, where I was a bit scared as I wasn’t ready, but later I managed to better my scores in the second nine,” said Gacheru.

The last junior tournament of the season, witnessed 170 juniors participate in the event, the highest turnout so far, with 74 juniors showing up for the golf clinic, which was part of the day’s activities. 

Earlier in the Saturday tournament, it was a great day for the lady golfers as they produced a stunning performance over their male counterparts to dominate the tournament at a very colourful and thrilling event held at the same facility. 

Home player, Elizabeth Njau, overcame a strong field of 305 players to claim the 14th and the last leg of the Safaricom Golf Tour. The Lady golfer maximized every opportunity from her course to card 20 points in the front nine before returning 22 points in the back nine to produce an impressive total of 42 points, beating her closest challengers Wanjiku Maingi and Rebeccah Gikuru on countback.

The corporate tournament also ran alongside the golf outreach dubbed “Golf Mtaani”, held at Toi Primary School in Kibra, with over 50 young people getting an opportunity to learn basic golf skills from Safaricom’s golf professional trainers.

The Safaricom Golf Tour heads to Vipingo Ridge, Kilifi County, next week on Saturday 6th for the Grand finale, which will see all the overall winners, Men & Ladies Categories, and Staff winners in all the 14 tournaments held across the country battle it out.

To grow the sport among junior players in the country, Safaricom has partnered with the Junior Golf Foundation to tap and nurture young talent. The juniors can register with the Junior Golf Foundation (JGF) for KES.1,000, which grants them access to play at any golf club in the country.

List of Junior winners at Royal Nairobi Golf Club