BY ALBATROSS

Dismas Indiza at the Barclays Kenya Open, yesterday.

They went off in two’s. The first team, comprising the Italian Alessio Bruschi and Jesus Legarrea, teed off at 08am and the rest followed. Nine minutes separated the teams and at 08.09 another Italian, Filippo Bergamaschi teed off in the company of Englishman Gary Lockerbie. 

There were 68 players who made the cut and are fighting it out this weekend for the Trophy and the winner’s cheque.

This is a seeded draw. The players whose scores were in the highest numbers in black, tee off first while those with the highest cumulative scores in the red numbers pull up the rear. Those in the very first team in the morning had a two-day cumulative total score of one over par.

This arrangement has two advantages. Those who played best are rewarded with extra time in the morning which they can invest as they wish: they could sleep in or put in some extra practice time at the range. But even more importantly as the winner is likely to come from the group that played best over the first two days, spectators are then in a position to watch the best golfers in action, since many spectators do not flock to the course in the early morning.

Since the Karen Country Club golf course is a par 72, those on one over par will have played a two-day cumulative total of 145, and they made the cut on the number. Remember the cut is determined so as to reduce the field to 60 plus ties. And what does ‘ties’ mean? There could be any number of players who ended up at one over par and they will all have a cumulative score of 145. All those at that score are said to have tied at one over par and they will all have made the cut.

There were six players on one over and seven players on level par score at 144 for the two days.  There were eight players on one under 143.

When all these ties are taken into account there were 68 players who got into the money bracket in the Barclays Kenya Open 2014. That is, all the players who teed off yesterday morning will be paid some money -- starting with the winner who gets the lion’s share and going on a descending scale all the way down to the player or players who end up at number 68.  But there could be a tie or ties for that last position.

There were only two Kenyan professional golfers who made the cut — The Royal Nairobi Golf Club’s Greg Snow and Mumias Dismas Indiza.