The mind that is best suited to play the game of golf is one that is vacant. It has been observed that youngsters who are not hindered by thoughts of mortgage payments or that downright idiot make the steadiest golfer.

A dogleg hole does not make them play a draw or a fade, they just play what they are used to; a straight shot. When a win is within grasp, they don’t press harder nor become careless. They just remain consistent in their game. In club competition, I would prefer to back the dull-eyed fellow, rather than the flashily dressed or eager-looking.

The imaginative character is the worst for golf. They dream of long drives that are straight down the middle, crisp iron shots laid on the green and sinking long winding putts. In reality, success on the golf course belongs to those who don’t over-react to the duffed shot and lets the brilliant shots to take care of themselves.

Alas! We cannot all be idiots and the majority of golfers in Kenya are no longer spring chicken. We go out there to enjoy the game and if we happen to get a “free-drop” from the sponsor of the day, we feel like winners.

Wambugu Ikinu, a junior golfer, regaled golfers when giving his winner’s speech at the Kenya Defence Forces Golf Association Patron’s Cup at Royal Nairobi Golf Club this past weekend; an event that had golf traditions gelling well with military precision. 

“When I heard that the tournament was sponsored by the army, I thought that the winner was going to get an AK47, ” Wambugu said.

Wambugu is well grounded in the golf tradition. He is mainly meant to thank the sponsors on behalf of all the golfers who participated in the event. A good joke from the winner goes a long way in lightening up the mood during the presentation.

However, in some Kenyan clubs today, after giving the winner’s speech, the winners go on to receive a letter from the Kenya Golf Union (KGU) informing them that they accepted a non-conforming prize.

The awarding of high-value prizes seems to be on the increase.

Recently, two Nairobi based golfers received plane tickets at different events in different clubs. On receiving letters from KGU questioning the value, one returned his prize while the second one tried giving justification for keeping his prize.

In another club, the winners received cheques from a financial institution that was sponsoring the event. Some of the reasons given by the sponsors are that they would rather give products that they deal in as a way of advertising themselves.

If all sponsors were allowed to give products that they deal in, many golfers would have lost their amateur status ages ago.

To help with the issue of conforming prizes at amateur events, the KGU has recently sent guidelines to golf clubs on what is allowed as prizes in amateur events. This may not be very helpful if golfers, and more so golf captains, don’t take time to read them.

The playwright George Bernard Shaw wrote, “youth is wasted on the young.” I, however, think that wisdom is wasted on golf captains who try to rewrite rules that they have no mandate or authority to. Especially golf captains that are as crooked as a dog's hind leg.