The heroes and villains of Golf 2018

Never say rusty: Tiger Woods won a tournament a five-year hiatus. {File, Standard]

As local golf clubs mark the end of their annual golf leaderships with Chairman’s putter and Captain’ Prize competitions this November, the International Golf Tours are closing with a bang. Three bangs actually.

First, the bad ones: disqualifications and penalties. A bizarre incident two weeks ago at Q-School, qualifying school, known as the Q-Series, an eight-round tournament that rewards the top players with playing status for 2019, knocked out Doris Chen, a prospective contender, with an unlikely disqualification.

Ms. Chen has an impressive résumé, having won the US Junior Amateur in 2010 and the women’s NCAA individual championship in 2014, that saw her join the Symetra Tour, the LPGA’s development tour, where she has played the last three seasons, but only made just over $12,000.

According to the LPGA, Doris Chen’s drive on the 17th hole in round seven came to rest out of bounds. An outside agency moved her ball back in bounds. Ms. Chen and her caddie were made aware that the ball had been moved. Instead of taking the required corrective action, she elected to play the ball from its altered lie.

 This was a wrong ball by definition, and since she did not correct her error before teeing off on the next hole, she was slapped with a DQ penalty.”

Who moved the ball

The Outside Agency, was actually Chen’s mother who was a spectator, and had been spotted by a homeowner on this golf estate executing the chicanery.

Chen’s plea that she is not a cheat is falling on deaf ears. One, because when asked if she spoke with her mother about whether she had moved the ball, her response was, “She told me that she didn’t and she doesn’t know.”

And two, even with full knowledge that her ball had been moved by an outside agency, she still elected to play the ball from its altered lie.

And finally, her caddy has thrown her under the bus by refusing to support her version of the story, rightly attributing his action to his own integrity and his obligation to the other golfers in the field.

Chen’s goose is cooked. Not even the powerhouse legal duo of Kardashian and Cochran can get her out of this one. She’ll be without LPGA Tour status for the 2019 season, and her reputation is forever blemished.

The moral of the story? Don’t ever cheat in golf. Not even on your handicap. That new golf bag, toaster or driver is just not worth it. You risk your reputation getting tainted and being shunned like a leper by the other golfers for the rest of your golfing life.

Three holes in a shamba

We have seen such culprits suffer. They sit alone after a round, while on the next table the other golfers talk in hushed tones, while taking quick side glances at him.

 He might as well go build three golf holes in his shamba, because nobody wants to be associated with him.

Elsewhere on the European Tour Q School, a rules violation cost 21-year-old Englishman Gian-Marco Petrozzi a chance to advance to the final stage. 

He had played an impeccable round, having made an ace on the par 3 17th hole at Spain’s Las Colinas Golf & Country Club, backed up by five birdies over his last six holes to card a six-under 65.

That would have been enough to get him into a playoff for an alternate spot into the final stage, and was all smiles.

But hardly 20 minutes after his round, he was informed that he had been assessed a two-stroke penalty. It turned out that on his final hole, Petrozzi had paced off a yardage for his approach shot, and while doing so, walked through the bunker to get his distance.

 On the way back to his ball, he raked his footprints in the sand, as a golfer is required to.  But what he thought was an attempt at good etiquette was construed a violation of Rule 13-2, as he had improved his line of play.

 The extra two strokes gave him a 67 that left him tied for 32nd place. Cut off was top 30. Now, that really sucks!

This incident echoes Phil Mickleson’s blunder at the Greenbrier Classic months earlier. Before playing his tee shot with an iron on the seventh hole, he nonchalantly tapped down some tall grass in front of the tee, a seemingly innocuous action that would easily have gone unnoticed.  

He then jokingly voiced his concern that his action might have been illegal. An open microphone picked up the banter. The ever alert and trigger-happy Officials checked and to Phil’s horror, informed him that he had violated Rule 13-2 by improving his line of play. Penalty!

Next, the good news: The stripped one, the one that moves the golf needle like nobody else can, whether he is ranked 1st or 1,000th, is back in the winner’s circle: Tiger Woods. Words can hardly describe the excitement at East Lake Golf Club when Tiger won a golf tournament after a five-year hiatus.

The excitement was so high that Justin Rose, the winner of the Fedex Cup and its $10 million-dollar prize that day, almost went unnoticed as he finished his round a group ahead. Tigers win was worth about a fifth of that. But money was not the point. What mattered is that Tiger is back!

 

Tiger on form but...

Or is he? Shall he win another Tournament? Of course, as I have always said. Shall he win a major? A long shot, but you can never count Tiger out.

 Can he beat Nicklaus’s 18 Majors record? Never. Not when the younger, fitter bucks like Koepka, Reed, Ram, and Scott are in the pack.

 Time is not on the side of last centuries’ heroes and phenoms.  Sergio almost missed the Majors boat.

PS Peter Kaberia Ministry of Sports and Heritage during announcement of the attainment of European Tour Status by Kenya Open Golf championship at Karen Country Golf Club. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Finally, the greatest, biggest and best news for Kenyan golfers, one worth the loudest bang akin to the combined blast of all Diwali fireworks set off in Nairobi last week: On its 50th anniversary, the Kenya Open Golf Championship has been promoted into a full European Tour event, up from the European Challenge Tour, a development tour, where it has languished since 1991, a long 28-year journey!

Just let that one sink in for a moment. What this means is that next year and thereafter, Kenyans have a chance to watch some of the strongest star-studded A-List of European Tour golfers that we only see on TV, right here in Nairobi!

We are talking of Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, Jon Rahm, Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood, Rory Mcllory and many others as possible competitors. 

2017 and 2018 Kenya Open winners Aaron Rai and Eduardo Molinari are almost a sure bet to come back and try and win the Kenya Open as a European Challenge Tour having won it as a Challenge Tour competition.

A toast for Kenya

The inaugural event is slated for March 14-17, 2019. Apparently, the promotion decision was made back in August, but they made KOGL sit on ice until the end of last month when the official 2019 Tour Schedule was released. Make some noise KOGL, you have been rather quiet about this.

The big winners shall be the spectators. Kenyan and indeed East African golfers who had previously sought to see these sports superstar had to fly to South Africa or Dubai. Now the action is coming to them right here.

Bravo Kenya Open Golf Limited, Kenya Golf Union, and KGU Patron former President Mwai Kibaki for persistently pushing for this upgrade.

Kenyan golfers say a big Thank You to the driving force that finally brought the efforts to fruition: President Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s second golfing President. Enjoy your golf, keep it in the short grass.

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