Kenya reclaims East African Golf Challenge

Aug 27, 2017

Many thought their Victoria Cup triumph over Uganda last month was a one off

Final standings

Kenya 19.5pts

Tanzania 17

Uganda 14

Rwanda 10.5

Ethiopia 6

Burundi 5

After dominating the East African Golf Challenge for the past three years, Uganda has passed on the mantle to perennial rivals Kenya.

Many thought their Victoria Cup triumph over Uganda last month was a one off and that Uganda would restore their status as regional kings in the East African Challenge held at Gymkhana Club in Dar-es-salaam last week.

But since they acquired Dutch coach John Van Liefland, the Kenyans have stepped up their game tremendously and are now the regional champions after beating hosts Tanzania to the championship by 2.5 points.

The champions trailed hosts Tanzania after the opening singles round but immediately made amends in the second round foursomes where they picked 3.5 points to Tanzania's 1 and Uganda's 3.

The doubles have been Kenya's undoing in the past but that's where they won the championship from, as they picked another 4 points in the four-ball-better ball round, where Tanzania managed 3 with Uganda picking 2 points.

So after the day-two doubles' games, Kenya had collected a total of 7.5 points to Tanzania and Uganda's 4 and 5 points respectively.

In the final day's singles round, the already fired up Kenyans again collected the most points (6.5) where Tanzania managed 5.5 with Uganda getting only five out of a possible 8 points.

Results show there is a general improvement from all participants considering past performances.

"The other teams have improved a lot plus greens tortured our boys with too many three or for putts. However, it was a good experience and the coach is going to deal with the little problems like the mental aspect," team manager Oscar Semawere noted.

Semawere said the mental aspect was glaring especially in the match youngster David Kamulindwa should have won and was leading 4up against Kenya's Mutai Kibugu with 7 holes to go but eventually lost to the Kenyan.

"Kenya also has a coach from Netherlands whose work is just to train the national team. He spends a lot of time with the boys and is paid very well," Semawere reasoned.

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