Githere swings to victory in Mombasa course

Sandra Githere sends a swing shot to the second greens during the sotet tournament at Mombasa golf club course on Saturday. [Maarufu Mohamed, Standard]

Sandra Githere’s determination and patience paid off after braving unusual morning rains to scoop the top spot at the par 71 Sea Link Mombasa course on Saturday.

The handicap 17 home golfer was able to return an excellent 42 stableford points to emerge the overall winner in this year’s second edition of the Sotet golf tournament beating over 150 golfers.

“It has been a great day. We are early risers and clearly this proves that the early bird catches the worm as we teed off at 6am. And as you all know, we are a family of good golfers. I would like to thank my four-ball team of Gabriel Gakuo, Kamami Njoroge, Wanjiku Kinyeru and God for the gift of life. My appreciation also goes to the club’s greenkeeper for maintaining a good course and all the organisers for making this tournament successful and enjoyable,” said Githere who is also a director at the club.

She again at the podium to receive her second prize after emerging the lady gross winner on 83 gross and the same for men was scooped by handicap 8 George Githinji with a score of 77 gross.

The tournament was organized by Sotet Golfers Association under the theme “Celebrating Culture and Diversity” and brought together golfers from the home club, Nyali, Diamond Leisure, Malindi, Kericho, Eldoret and others from Nairobi and western parts of Kenya.

Handicap 14 Peter Kimanga was the men winner on 42 points while handicap 25 Salim Taib on 41 points was second.

Taib said he lost the overall lead after two points were deducted from his scores as penalty for delaying by five minutes to tee off time.

The club’s lady captain Fiona Mbandi playing off handicap 36 was the lady winner on a score of 41 points beating handicap 32 Constance Achila to the runners up spot by a single point.

Fidel Wasike playing off handicap 7 carded 30 points to win the junior prize and left-handed golfer Elijah Ibua playing off handicap 19 brought 35 points to win the senior prize.

The sponsor prize was won on 38 points by handicap 38 Cheruto Serem while handicap 20 Eunice Korir on 31 points claimed the guest prize.

Sotet vice chairman Edwin Kiptoo who represented the chairman Eliud Bett said the event was successful and was a centre of celebration of excellence, heritage, and the rich Kalenjin culture that brought tradition, sport, and some seriously fun vibes to the sea-front.

Kiptoo thanked the club and all the golfers for making it a success and promised the tournament will continue to be hosted with a cultural background aimed at promoting community engagement and fostering strong relations between various businesses, corporates and friends in the Coastal region.

“Sotet is our calabash that we use to store ‘mursik’ our traditional milk and the event that was grazed by golfers from all over the country to celebrate culture and diversity was indeed successful and will be bigger next year,” said Kiptoo.

Club Captain Francis Muthama praised all who made the tournament successful and said the club was proud to be associated with the Sotet family to make the sport of golf at the club grow bigger and more enjoyable.

Elsewhere at the par 72 Kakamega Sports club on the same day, the club’s green keeper handicap 24 Ronald Omondi shed tears after finding himself in unfamiliar territory to bag the best effort prize with a disastrous day’s score of 91 nett during the November Ashanti mug tournament.

Nyanza golf club’s lady golfer handicap 37 Irene Wagumba was lucky emerging the overall winner but on a two-way count back score of 69 nett after tying with second placed handicap 14 Sanjiv Wallas and third placed handicap 19 Michael Chebii.