The Junior Golf Foundation has lined up 48 tournaments across the country in 2025 to attract more junior golfers to play and get the Western American Golf Association (WAGA) ranking points.
In a press statement, Junior Golf Foundation (JGF) President Regina Gachora says there is more to come from the junior golfers, especially after the impressive results from the junior players at the Africa Amateur Golf Championship in South Africa earlier this month.
The JGF President said that three juniors, Channel Wangare, Kanana Muthomi and Bianca Ngecu, were part of Team Kenya, finishing 4th, 11th and 12th.
“It means that we (JGF) are doing the right thing; we are developing talent and the talent is being seen all over Africa,” she proclaimed, adding that the target in five years is to have a product of JGF qualifying for the Magical Kenya Open and competing to win the tournament.
The pipeline, according to Gachora, is already there, with Njoroge Kibugu playing at the Magical Kenya Open in 2022 as a junior.
She revealed that Kibugu has progressed to qualify for the 2025 Magical Kenya Open as the best-ranked Kenyan pro, pointing out that JGF has put the best junior golfers in the national team where they are training three times a week.
Gachora insisted that this move elevates their level of golf and that in any sport, and not just golf, it is all about good training, good drills and practicing the sport as best as they can.
“If we continue with the same trajectory, then we will have many Kenyans qualifying on their own right and not fighting for the few slots allocated for Kenya,” she urged.
Meanwhile, the first tournament of the year was the NCBA US Kids Nairobi Spring tournament at the VetLab Sports Club and despite the early season blues, some golfers posted impressive results to take an early lead in the rankings.
In the boys 13-14 years’ category, Aidan Gachora was in sublime form with a score of 1 over par 73 to win the category. Amar Shas was not far behind, as he posted 75 points, two strokes behind Gachora. Tsorav Soni finished third with a score of seven over par 79.
Another competitive category was the girls 11-12 years old. Chloe Chiuri played five over par 79 to finish first, followed by Siqian Yu, only one stroke behind. Ashley Muyela was a further stroke behind as the top three players were separated by only three strokes.
By Michael Omondi