Thika Sports Club will have the privilege of hosting the opening round of a new 22-leg amateur golf tournament on January 30th. 

 NCBA Golf Series,  an all-year-round amateur championship launched yesterday, will traverse the country culminating in the grand finale at the Karen Country Club on December 3. 

 In their quest to support young budding talents, the main series will run alongside an NCBA Junior Golf Series reserved for players aged between six and 18. 

The junior events, slated for Karen Country Club on August 23 and 24 and December 9 to 10 at Muthaiga, will also include two-day golf clinics intended to shore up the junior competition. 

 “Sports sponsorship remains an important area for us because of its role in transforming the lives of Kenyans.

Our goal is to facilitate the growth of golf locally and in the process make Kenya an international golf destination,” NCBA Group Managing Director John Gachora said at the launch held at the Royal Nairobi Golf Club yesterday. 

 He added, “Previously, we had golf events that served as customer appreciation events where we would host our customers exclusively. 

As NCBA, we are now a much bigger entity, with a bigger number of golfing customers and therefore we had to re-think our approach to ensure we reach out to everyone across the country.

It is for this reason that we are introducing an all-year amateur competition.”

 Players will register for the said events through the respective clubs hosting each event with prize money set to be made public in due course. The bank is spending a total of Sh22 million in running the event.

 “By introducing this series, we are giving more youngsters who have shown interest in golf a chance to compete and improve their handicaps. 

This will also give Kenya a larger pool of good players to choose from and field during regional and international tournaments,” Gachora further stated.

 The one-day events will include series tournaments and club night tournaments.

The competition will move to Vetlab Golf Club on February 13 for the second leg of the series while Kitale will host the third leg.  Eldoret and Limuru will host the fourth and fifth legs respectively.  

There will be only one event in April, hosted at the Royal Nairobi on April 10, after which the series will take a break until May 8 when action will return to Karen.

Back-to-back legs are scheduled for May 21 and 22 at Great Rift Valley Lodge and Nakuru Golf Club respectively.