Kenya’s marque golf event stronger 52 years on

Italian Guido Migiliozzi is sprinkled with champagne after he emerged Magical Kenya Open Golf tournament winner at the Karen County club on 17th March, 2019. [Picture; Stafford Ondego]

Now part of the European Tour, the Magical Kenya Open is in its 52nd year.

It is Kenya’s top golf event of the year since its inception in 1967. 

In 2019, the Kenya Open became a European Tour event and was played in mid-March during the same week as the Players Championship on the PGA Tour.

For the early part of its history, the Kenya Open was part of the Safari Circuit, a collection of tournaments in Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe visited by British and European professionals during their winter off-season.

The European Tour, who had taken over running of the Safari Tour in the late 1970s, began to expand globally through the 1980s and those events formally became part of the second tier Challenge Tour in 1991.

With the exception of the 1994 event, the Kenya Open remained on the Challenge Tour schedule until 2019 when it was elevated to the elite European Tour schedule.

The Kenya Open has always been held near Nairobi, at Muthaiga Golf Club (1967, 1969–2002, 2009–2012, 2017–2018) and at Karen Country Club (1968, 2004–2008, 2013–2016, 2019).

The title has been won by some of Europe’s Ryder Cup golfers, including Seve Ballesteros, Ian Woosnam, Ken Brown, Edoardo Molinari and Christy O’Connor Jnr, as well as future Masters champion Trevor Immelman.

The most successful player is England’s Maurice Bembridge, who recorded three victories between 1968 and 1979.

Eight local golf professionals will fly the Kenyan flag during the Kenya Open slated for March 12-15 at Karen Country Club.

This year, Standard Group with its flagship brand, KTN News, are the official broadcast partners with The Standard Newspaper expected to provide riveting coverage of the show-stopper golf tournament in Africa.

Italy’s Guido Migliozzi became the second Italian to win the 2019 edition.

Migliozzi’s victory was the second successive win by an Italian after Lorenzo Gagli won in 2018.

Migliozzi waded off stiff challenge from South African Justin Hardin.