Zain Corporate Golf Day set for Karen tomorrow

By Oscar Pilipili

The Zain BlackBerry Golf Challenge will tomorrow reach a crescendo with the staging of the Corporate Day at the Karen Country Club. The series of golf championships that started in 2008 have been staged all over the country, inviting the participation of members of all active golf clubs in Kenya, over 4,000 golfers.

According to Zain’s Michael Okwiri, the series of championships have largely achieved their aims.

"We set out to achieve two basic aims; firstly to get an informal platform to interact with our clients, especially our corporate clients," Okwiri said. "Secondly, we wanted to use these events to introduce our new superior product offerings to the corporate fraternity, we have achieved both aims."

In 2009, the Zain BlackBerry Golf Challenge was launced at the nine hole Vet Lab Sports Club before heading to the Thika Sports Club in April.

"At Thika we invited golfers from the neighbouring Ruiru and Makuyu Golf Clubs to participate," Okwiri added. "From Thika we moved North to Eldoret Club in May and again we invited golfers from the Nandi Bears and Kitale to join us there."

The Railway Golf Club played host to the championship in June and Muthaiga members turned up in huge numbers in July.

"We still have a number of events on the calendar, including Nyanza, Mumias, Royal, Limuru, Njoro and finally Nyali at the Coast in December," Okwiri commented.

The Karen BlackBerry event will be a corporate event featuring Kenya’s top CEOs.

Action at Karen tees off at 11.42am with the last teams teeing off just after 2pm. Over 130 golfers have been drawn to participate in the afternoon golf extravaganza and evening cocktails.

In Los Angeles Martin Kaymer’s playoff win in the US PGA Championship not only capped a riveting week of high drama at Whistling Straits, but also served notice at what is likely to unfold in the majors in the next decade.

The 25-year-old German became the sixth first-time winner in the last seven majors and the third in his 20s, a pattern which is almost certain to continue in an exciting new era of emerging young guns.

With the dominance of Tiger Woods considerably diminished since the American’s private life unravelled at the end of last year, players such as Kaymer, Rory McIlroy and Louis Oosthuizen have burst into the limelight.

Talented 21-year-old Northern Irishman McIlroy has recorded three top-three finishes in the majors and has been widely tipped as a future world number one by his peers.

— Additional reporting by Reuters