Kiprotich bags Masters crown at Karen Club

Golf Masters series fifth leg overall winner, Tile Kiprotich. [Mose Sammy, Standard]

Banking on similar chilly early morning conditions at his home course, Nandi Bears Golf Course experience, Tile Kiprotich blindly navigated through the dense wall of fog at Karen Country Club to claim the fifth leg of the Duracoat Golf Masters series overall title.

A field of 230 golfers was fighting for the 12 coveted qualifier slots to the grand finale at Mount Kipipiri Golf Resort later this year. The action-packed leg pushed the series’ total turnout past a staggering 1,300 golfers, following previous high-octane stops at Vet Lab, Nakuru, Sigona, and Nanyuki.

Kiprotich shot a final round total of 42 stableford points to be declared the legs’ Men winner. The triumph marked his second major victory in just a fortnight, hot on the heels of his high-profile win at the Royal Nairobi Golf Club.

Kiprotich prevailed over Tarvinder Sembhi, who also posted 42 stableford points, on tense countback, while John Chege locked in third place with a stellar 41 stableford points.

“I recently bought a Paradym X driver and three wood, which have immensely changed my game as I played on regulation; my short game and putting just clicked. That contributed to my win,” Kiprotich said.

In the ladies category, Melisa Detho was the Lady winner with 42 Stableford points, narrowly pipng Lady winner second, Dianah Kimani, who matched her score. Rhoda Mwebesa rounded off the top three ladies with 40 Stableford points. In the gross category, Justin Ngeera fired 72 Gross to claim the overall gross title.

The personal effort category saw exceptional feats of skill. Anvay Dixit and Dianah Kimani unleashed raw power to take the Men’s and Ladies’ Longest Drive titles respectively, while Ketul Tanna and Rhoda Mwebesa displayed pinpoint accuracy to claim the Nearest to Pin title but missed out on the Sh4 million Jetour SUV hole-in-one prize on the par-three fifth hole.