‘Iron-man’ is last man standing at third inter-county challenge at Thika Greens.

Kabeteshire's Reagan Kibugi in action during the Inter-County golf challenge at Thika Greens Golf Resort, May 4, 2019. [Mose Sammy, Standard]

Handicap 19 Lewis Kimotho of Limuru Golf & Country Club was the last man standing after the third edition of the inter-county golf challenge at Thika Greens Golf resort over the weekend.

Kimotho fondly referred to as “Iron-man” by his golfing peers was in his own league to prevail over a big field that participated in the daylong tourney pitting four county teams against each other.

Participating teams were; Machakos (Akamba) which was represented at the event by golfers drawn from Makueni, Machakos and Kitui. Nakuru (NaxVegas) represented by golfers from Naivasha, Nakuru, Njoro and its environs, Nyandarua/Laikipia (Happy Valley) and Kabete (Kabeshire).

In the first inter-county challenge, Murang’a (Metumi) had the better of Kirinyaga’s (Abai) 16-10 in the tournament played under the match-play format while the second edition saw four team comprised of golfers from Meru christened (Amerucans), Kirinyaga (Abai), Nyeri (Rware) and Murang’a (Metumi) battle it out for the top honors.

"Today I played a cautious game throughout. Teeing off with my five-iron, seven-iron for my approach shots and Pitching-wedge for short and around the green game. My swing was changed by the pro at Limuru last year and since then a lot has changed since then. I was hitting the green on regulation often single-putting." said Kimotho on his win.

"Excellent course Thika Greens is, the greens were holding and attacking the pin worked out really well." he added

Ponyea India Medicare, a health logistics provider, Magnate Ventures, Forever Living, VinePack presented the event which was played under clear blue skies for the better part of the morning before light drizzles mid-afternoon.

Iron-man, playing off handicap 19 returned a solid score of 43(21+22) stableford points to deny Men Winner Prof J Maalu the top honor by a stroke 42(19+23) stableford points. Men winner second prize went to a handicap 22, JK Githunguri on a score of 41(22+19) stableford points while lucking in their shadows was Men third prize winner Fr Munyeki playing off handicap 11 on a score of 39(18+19) stableford points.

Donning the Lady’s gong was handicap 24 Judy Nyambura representing Happy Valley on a decent score of 38(14+24) stableford points while her teammate Eunice Kinungi playing off handicap 29 carded 34(14+20) stableford points won Lady winner second prize.

Media Personality Tony Kwalanda playing off handicap 21 claimed Guest winner prize on a commendable score of 38(19+19) stableford points as handicap 13 Hon Charles Kibiru representing Kirinyaga county (Abai) settled for Guest winner second prize on a score of 37(17+20) stableford points.

Best foursome team prize out the 27 teams that participated went to thje team of Tony Kwalanda, Patrick Karanja, Ndiga Githae and Njuguna Ndungu while the top scorers from the four participating counties were Kevin Barasa (NaxVegas) - 39 stableford points, Victor Mutwii (Akamba) – 38 stableford points, S Mwangi (Kabeteshire)- 37 stableford points and Simon Karo (Happy Valley) who posted 36 stableford points.

While the overall team prize went to Laikipia/Nyandarua (Happy Valley) after amassing a total of 89 points, NaxVegas came in second with 87 points with Akamba taking third place with 77 points while Kabeteshire was easy with a third spot finish with 61 points.

In the commercials, Bernard Muteti of Akamba struck a solid seven-iron of the deck but missed sinking hole-in-one by a whisker to lift Nearest to the Pin prize on the par-three 17th hole.

Fourth inter-county challenge will see North-Rift comprised of golfer from Elgeiyo-Marakwet, Uasin-Gishu, Kitale and Nandi square it out with Kakamega made up of Bungoma, Busia and Vihiga, Kisii/Nyamira and Nyanza (Migori, Homa-Bay, Kisumu and Siaya) on May 18 at the Thika Greens Golf Resort.