Mutuku floors team of 177 golfers to bag title at Machakos Club

Home club’s Gilbert Mutuku was over the moon after flooring 177 golfers to win his first major title of the season at the nine-hole Machakos Country Club course on Saturday.

Playing off handicap 17 Mutulu carded an excellent solid 42 stableford points to emerge the overall winner for this year’s opener in the eigth edition of the ICEA LION King of the course series.

“Although it was a challenging day at the course, I am completely thrilled to have won this tournament and record my first title of the season. Last year was bad but this time it seems things are going to be positive and I will continue to improve my game,” Mutuku said.

The member winner on a count back score of 39 points was handicap 16 Gregory Ndunda who tied on the same score with handicap 11 Julius Kioko who was first the runner up beating handicap 17 Bernard Muthiya to the second runner up slot on a two points difference while handicap 17 John Nzioka settled for the third runner up place on 36 points.

Bill Kalya playing off handicap 10 carded 38 points to win the guest prize and handicap 21 Elizabeth Ng’ethe on 29 points was the ICEA staff winner.

Taking the lady’s Title was handicap 6 Diana Mbuba with 33 points beating handicap 20 Veronica Muthiani who returned a score of 28 points.

John Kitaka playing off handicap 16 brought a good score of 40 points to win the junior prize while the senior prize for those above 65 years old was won by handicap 19 John Masai with a score of 36 points.

The handicap prizes for the golfers of handicap 29+ men and handicap 37+ ladies were won by  handicap 41 Chris Katiku on 40 points and handicap 48 Jemimah Samuel with 32 points respectively.

The daylong 18-hole event attracted a robust field of golfers from both Machakos and the wider Nairobi metropolitan area.

This follows the resounding success of the seventh edition which unfolded across seven different clubs nationwide and concluded with a spectacular finale at Nyali in October last year.

Earlier on Friday at the same venue, the sponsor organised a junior golf tournament which served as the captivating prelude to the Saturday tournament that had a turnout of 31 young golfers.

Handicap 16 John Kitaka carded 40 nett to emerge the overall winner while handicap 40 Myles Mwendwa was the runner up with 46 nett.

Elsewhere at Sigona Golf Club, professional golfer Edwin Mudanyi led a team of amateurs Vijay Dhodia, Bhavni Shah and Harshida Shah in returning a combined score of 83 points to win the Safari Tour Pro-Am tour event on Saturday where they bagged Sh30,000 as prize money.

Professional golfer Abraham Galgalo with amateurs comprising Saayam Shah, Rushabh Shah and Cornelius Parsayo brought a total of 82 points to emerge runners up.

The Pro Am individual overall winner was handicap 16 G.S.Pull  with a count back score of 40 points after tying on the same score with men winner placed handicap 18 Sawan Raikundalia and the men runners up on 39 points was handicap 12 Kuldip Devgun.

Handicap 22 Isabella D’Souza returned 35 points to win the lady’s prize while handicap24 Shobna Patel on 31 points and handicap 9 Viraaj Shah with 32 points were the lady and junior winners respectively.

OTHER SELECTED RESULTS;

NYALI GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB;

November 2023 Mug & Ladies Medal;

Best Gross winner-William Kaguta (0)-77gross,Division A winner-Jimmy King'ori (9)-69nett,Runners up-Partik Patel (4)-74nett,Third-Omar Lewa (9)-75nett,Division B winner-Shah Saj (18)-72nett,Runners up-Ian Marshall (17)-73nett,Third-Frank Herter (14)-75nett,Division C winner-David Ngunjiri (25)-72nett,Runners up-Aameen Dhanji (20)-73nett,Third-Rishi Shah (22)-75nett C/B,Division D winner-Max Mitterer (40)-69nett C/B,Runners up-Jabess Oduor (33)-69nett,Best Male Caddy-William Odeck (4)-69nett,Ladies Medal-Gross winner-Susan Stokes (9)-87gross C/B,Division A winner-Florence Karimi (20)-73nett,Runners up-Truphena Oyaro (15)-76nett,Third-Joyce Masai (10)-77nett,Division B winner-Rose Njogu (29)-73nett,Runners up-Petronilah Kalee (26)-74nett C/B,Third-Hilda Mugure (23)-74nett,Division C winner-Nasihah Abdalla (39)-77nett,Best Putter-Mary Kandu-27putts,Total players-10