Wet greens no barrier for Karimi

Florence Karimi follows her swing.[Maarufu Mohamed,Standard]

Veteran Coast lady golfer Florence Karimi braved the rains to walk home with a silver medal after emerging the winner of the April 2018  Medal golf tournament at the par 71 Mombasa course.

Under unfavourable wet conditions on Saturday, the club’s former lady captain playing off handicap 14 carded  81 nett  to claim the trophy in the 18-hole event.

“The weather was bad. Most greens were wet and slippery, but I was able to control my game and eventually win,” said Karimi.

The club’s lady captain Handicap 21 Jayne Githere was behind by a four-stroke difference to win the Bronze title.

In the Mug category handicap 11 Jimmy King’ori posted  68 nett to win the A division  while  handicap 17 Johnson  Wamunyua on 72 nett and  handicap 22 Kamau Kuria on 74 nett  were the B and C division winners respectively.

The best gross winner went to Alan Dainty on a two over par 73 gross and taking the  best guest prize was Nyali’s  handicap 28  Solomon Atsiaya on a score of 77 nett.

At the par 72 Ruiru sports club, home club’s handicap 16 Christopher Kiai qualified for the first leg of the 2018 'KCB road to Karen masters' after surviving a count back score of 40 points to emerge the overall winner in the first series also played on Saturday.  

Kiai had tied on the  same points with clubmate handicap 21 Michael Chege, who  also  qualified by  claiming  the men winner’s slot.

The club’s lady captain, handicap 31 Veronica Mwaura posted 37 points to win the Lady’s category.

Others in the qualification list include the staff winner on 32 points Bernard Kontonya  playing off handicap 21, while handicap 0 George Felix posted 37 points to win the guest prize. The first  beneficiary of a wild card was Ben Njuguna, who  was the nearest  to the pin winner.

This is a new five series event of the Kenya Commercial Bank, the second leg moving to the Limuru course on May 26.

The third leg will be in  Eldoret on June 16 while  Mombasa  will host  it  on June 30 before  the final  fifth leg  at Muthaiga on July 7.

Six amateur winners from each of the participating clubs gets automatic qualification to play at the 2018 KCB Karen Masters Pro-am tournament on July 17.

The criteria will see the overall winner, men winner, lady winner, staff winner and guest winner get automatic qualification in addition to the wild card that will see one person grab a ticket.

The main 2018 KCB Masters will be played from July 19 to 22 at the Karen course.