NAIROBI, Kenya, August 18 – The quartet of Jiten Pabari, Amrish Patel, Ramesh Karia and Prashant Thakrar emerged victorious 15th leg of the KCB East Africa Golf Tour at the Nyanza Golf Club on Saturday.
The quartet accumulated a combined score of 115 points, ahead of the runners-up team of Griffins Owino, Joyce Osike, Tabitha Ojwang and Christine Riaroh who garnered 111 points.
Speaking after their triumph, Pabari said it was a sweet relief to win after finishing second in the same competition, last year.
“I have been playing golf here for the last 35 years. It feels good to finally win today and be able to represent Nyanza at the Grand Finale. Last year, we finished as the runners-up and today we have won. We are quite excited,” Pabari said.
He further praised his team for the unity and preparations for the tournament, noting that motivation levels were high ahead of the competition.
“We were very motivated when we came here. We have been practising for the last one week because we did not want a repeat of last year and finish as runners-up once again. We played and gave our best for the team We are looking forward to representing Nyanza in the finals and bring glory to this region. Our club is in need of a really good sport here,” he added.
In other results of the day, Joyce Osike was crowned overall winner after accumulating 41 stableford points as Amrish Patel ruled the male category with 39 points.
Elizabeth Akinyi was named the winner of the ladies category with 40 points.
In the longest drive category, Dr. Rosemary Obara bagged it in the ladies’ section while Deve Karia clinched it in the men’s category.
Benjamin Koyier scooped the guest winner award with 39 points as Allan Kirui won the staff category with 33 points.
This year’s competition attracted 130 amateur golfers — a fact that KCB director Corporate Banking John Okulo said goes a long way in fulfilling their vision of making golf accessible to the masses across the East African region.
“Currently, through the series, we have reached 1500 participants and over 1000 juniors. Our aim is to interact with 3000 golfers across the East African region – Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda. We aim to make the sport accessible to all and elevate it to an elite level,” Okulo said.
The next leg of the KCB East Africa Golf Tour will be held at Nanyuki on September 7.
