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 Junior golfers Belinda Wanjiru, 12, and Beiju Shah, 16, have been crowned the overall winners of the thirteenth leg of the Safaricom Golf Tour junior tournament held at the VetLab Golf Club on Sunday.

The duo capitalised on the home advantage to post 75 and 74 points respectively to claim the tournament’s best girl and boy titles. 

“I started playing golf when I was nine years old. My journey and growth in the sport have been overwhelming with much support from my parents. The tournament was amazing as I had not much pressure on the course. I am glad to emerge as the overall best boy. Nothing beats the feeling of playing and winning at your home club”, said Shah, a junior golfer. 

Junior tournaments

Wanjiru and Shah have participated in the past junior tournaments and managed to lead in their respective group categories. This is the second overall title for Wanjiru after emerging the best girl in the first leg of the juniors’ tournament in Nanyuki.

Sunday’s tournament witnessed 165 juniors participate in the event, with 90 juniors showing up for the golf clinic, which was part of the day’s activities. 

Earlier on Saturday, home player Nelson Nyoike beat a field of 253 golfers to win the corporate tournament. 

Playing off a handicap 21, the 62-year-old golfer posted 22 points in the front nine before doubling the scores in the back nine to post a total of 44 points courtesy of twelve pars, four double bogeys and two bogeys enabling him to claim the overall title ahead of Watson Burugu with 40 points.

Nyoike becomes the second eldest golfer to win the Safaricom Golf Tour after the seventy-year-old Don Riaro of Karen Golf Club. He joins other winners from the past twelve tournaments to battle it out in the grand finale held in two weeks at Vipingo Ridge in Kilifi County.

The corporate tournament also ran alongside the Golf Outreach dubbed ‘Golf Mtaani’ held at Kabete VetLab Primary School, with 80 young people getting an opportunity to learn basic skills about golf from Safaricom’s golf professional trainers.