Long-hitting pro Dismas Indiza and Muthaiga’s Greg Snow will lead Kenya’s charge at the forthcoming Magical Kenya Open and Kenya Savannah Classic.
The two events will count towards the European Tour with the Kenya Open planned to run between March 18-21 and the subsequent Savannah Classic teeing off from March 23-26. Indiza and Snow will be among 12 Kenyans picked from Safari Tour to play in the two European Tour events.
The Kenya Open is being sponsored by government through Magical Kenya while Savannah Classic is supported by the European Tour.
Indiza emerged winner in the 9th and last round of the 2020/2021 Safari Tour Golf Series yesterday at Karen Country Club to be crowned the series champion with a cumulative total of 362.0 points.
Indiza beat Zimbabwean Robinson Chinhoi to clinch the Karen leg on sudden death in subsequent two holes after tying in the initial three hole playoff. Both Indiza and Chinhoi tied on 14 under after the 4-day 72-hole play. Indiza qualified first in the Kenya team followed by Greg Snow on 322.2 points. Snow failed to make the cut in the last tournament but managed second place in the final standings.
Simon Ngige qualified third in the Kenya team with 316.5 points followed by David Wakhu who is the fourth player.
Other players making the Kenya team are Eric Ooko of Golf Park, CJ Wangai (Sigona), Samuel Njoroge (Railway), who qualified seventh. Others are—Justus Madoya, Edwin Mudanyi (Vet Lab), Windsor’s Riz Charania , Mathew Omondi and veteran Jacob Okello.
Tournament director, Patrick Obath, said the two European Tour events will feature 156 players of which six will be amateurs, 12 Kenyan pros and three from the African region. All pros have had to qualify through the Safari Tour Golf Series.
The three players from the African region who qualified for the event through the Safari Tour are Chinhoi (Zimbabwe), Andrew (Nigeria) and Philip Kasozi (Uganda).
After cancellation of the 2020 Magical Kenya Open organisers Kenya Open Golf Limited introduced a new scoring system with new qualifying scores in the Safari Tour. Organisers factored in 10 per cent of 2018-2019 scores in the and 20 per cent of the 2019-2020 and 70 per cent of 2020/2021 scores to come up with the total tally.
Peter Kanyago confirmed that the Kenya Open and Savannah events will be run without spectators with all players being confined to a sporting bubble. The European Tour will give each player 2900 euros for both events to offset bubble costs.
