Muthaiga Golf Club’s Jeff Kubwa shrugged off a strong challenge in a sudden-death play-off to clinch the fourth leg of the Savannah Tour Golf Tournament played at Sigona Golf Club.
At the close of regulation play, a total of six players were tied on 2 under-par 70 at the 18-hole golf course. They were; Jeff Kubwa, Frank Matilo, Dismas Indiza, Eric Ooko, Jacob Okello, and Justus Asena.
The six-headed for a sudden-death play-off where Kubwa who is Kenya’s only deaf professional golfer emerged victorious. During regular play, the first nine proved to be challenging as he dropped shots in the fifth and seventh holes and held pars in the rest of the holes. He however recovered in the second nine, hitting birdies in the fifteenth and eighteenth holes, and playing safe for pars in the rest of the holes to return a score of 2 under-par 70.
For his efforts, he bagged Kshs. 100,000 of the prize money.
The rest of the five players who tied for the second runner-up position, meanwhile, took home Ksh. 44,500 each of the prize purse which was set at Kshs. 500,000.
Commenting on his win, Kubwa said;
“For the past Savannah Tours that I have participated in, I have been playing quite well, but my putting has been off. So I have been working on improving my putting and today I sunk a lot of them. I hit the ball quite well, always closer to the pin. I have never played in a six-man playoff. It was quite challenging but I encouraged myself to go for it. I still need to work on my putting which is good but not great as I would want it to be. The tournament attracted a total of 68 professional and amateur golfers who battled it out for the title.”
The Savannah Tour is a very good tournament which I think will go a long way in raising the standard of Kenyan golf. I believe that if we had started this off quite early, we would be in a very good place in terms of the levels of golf in the country. We thank the Savannah Tour for this opportunity,” he added.