Wildlife apart, Kenya is also an off the track golf destination

By Rahul Banerji

When and if Kenya ever pops up in conversations elsewhere, the association is first wildlife, and the Masai Mara. Golf does not readily figure on the list, and yet looking at the East African nation as a golfing destination, there s more to it than meets the eye.

Kenya and golf were in the news recently in somewhat indirect fashion when English golfer Aaron Rai won the Honma Hong Kong Open last month.

Rai’s association with Kenya comes from the fact that his mother Dalvir, was born there and in fact made her first visit back when her son won the Barclays Kenya Open last March.

Be that as it may, with 8,000 registered members and 41 courses – 18 and nine hole – on offer, there is much for the visiting golfer to uncover. From coastal Mombasa to cosmopolitan Nairobi and beyond in the Great Rift Valley, visitors could be spoilt for choice in picking where to play.

Golf tourism in Kenya is a fairly established business and of late, an increasing number of tour operators from India are looking at it as a destination that naturally combines wildlife and golf.

Interesting past

Digging around for information on golf in Kenya was revealing. As with large parts of the world once ruled by Britain, great powers were vested in the District Commissioner.

In Kenya, almost every such officer laid out his personal golf course which in turn became the foundation for the 41-odd golf establishments scattered across the country despite a later backlash against the game.

Writing in the Nairobi-based Business Daily, businessman and golf historian Charles Gacheru says a number of courses were wiped out after independence from their former rulers as they were seen as relics of a colonial past.

This attrition continues and Gacheru bemoans the loss of a course in a place called Molo, which was as he says, “famous for being perhaps the only golf course in the world where you could tee off in the Northern Hemisphere and hole out in the Southern Hemisphere across the Equator”.

Oldest sports body

Incidentally, the Kenya Golf Union is the longest-running sports body in the country and over 90 years old. Yet with athletics and football propelling Kenya to world attention, local golf has taken something of a beating and is now more or less for tourists though the European Tour has for years included the Kenya Open in its calendar.

Of the clubs and courses in the country, Gacheru writes, the Royal Nairobi Golf Club has been in existence since 1906 while the Muthaiga Golf Club turned 90 last year. Other venerable golf clubs in Kenya include the Mombasa Golf Club founded in 1911, the Kiambu Golf Club set up in 1916, and the Kitale Club which was founded in 1924

CG Open tees off today

Closer home, the 11th editionof the Rs 1 crore CG Open 2018 tees off at Bombay Presidency Golf Club on Wednesday with a field that features some of India’s top professionals including

Among them are Rashid Khan, Chiragh Kumar, reigning PGTI Order of Merit champion and 2016 CG Open winner Shamim Khan and others.

The other former CG Open champions competing this week include Ashok Kumar (2015), Harendra Gupta (2012),Australian Kunal Bhasin (2009) and Mandeo Singh Pathania (2010).

Prominent foreign players in the field also include Sri Lankans Anura Rohana, Mithun Perera, N. Thangaraja and K. Prabagaran and Bangladesh’s Md Zamal Hossain Mollah.

Last week, Rohana emerged winner of the Bengaluru Open at the KGA course. 

The prominent Mumbai-based professionals in the field are Anil Bajrang Mane, Wilson Raj D’Mello, AkashModi and Aakash Bamne. Ahaan Nath is the only Mumbai-based amateur in the field.

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