Sixty Junior Golfers Set for Safaricom Golf Tour Bootcamp

10 December 2022

The Three-day camp at Windsor Golf and Country Club will offer putting, chipping, pitching, bunker, iron play and woods lessons among others

Nairobi, 10^th December 2022…  Safaricom (NSE: SCOM)  has today kicked off a three-day boot camp at the Windsor Golf and Country Club to train 60 junior golfers from across the country. The training is being conducted by the Junior Golf Foundation in partnership with the US Kids Golf Foundation.

The 60 players are among thousands of junior golfers who participated in the inaugural Safaricom Golf Tour junior tournaments. They will be trained and mentored by various local coaches on different aspects of the game including putting, chipping, pitching, bunker, iron play, and woods.

“We are thrilled about what our Golf Tour managed to achieve across the country. With the huge untapped talent that we saw in all 14 legs, I am convinced that as a country we have a bright future in golf. Through our series we were able to discover, nurture, lift and expose new talent from every corner of Kenya. We managed to interact with over 4,000 youngsters through the junior tournaments, Golf Clinics, and outreach programmes,” said Peter Ndegwa, CEO Safaricom.

The three-day training event will culminate in an 18-hole tournament for the elite players and a nine-hole tournament for the non-elite players.

The programme is part of a three-year partnership launched last year in October between Safaricom, the Junior Golf Foundation and the US Kids Foundation to help nurture and grow golf talent in the country. The partnership involves the training of coaches, local golf tours and nationwide golf development. 

The training of local coaches by US Kids Senior Director Golf Development Jim Hardy is also ongoing in key golfing regions of Coast, Nairobi, Mt. Kenya, Rift Valley and Western counties. The coaches are expected to use the knowledge gained to introduce more young people to the sport as well as develop some into elite players.

“We are fortunate to have Safaricom and US Kids Foundation as key partners in supporting our agenda of growing and nurturing golf talent in the country. Their support has been tremendous and has enabled us to tap new talent from across the country as we also work towards demystifying and making the sport accessible to all,” said Regina Gachora, President, JGF.

In January this year, Safaricom launched its inaugural Golf Series dubbed the Safaricom Golf Tour with an aim to tap, nurture and grow golf talent.

The tour was held in 14 golf courses across the country namely: Nanyuki, Limuru, Muthaiga, Nyanza, Machakos, Eldoret, Karen, Nyali, Kericho, Kitale, Nakuru, Kenya Airforce, Vetlab and Royal Nairobi Golf Club before culminating in a Grand finale at Vipingo Ridge.

The inaugural series drew a field of more than 9,000 participants out of whom 4,405 were juniors who were engaged in both junior tournaments, clinics and outreach programmes.