Tannahill Shield attracts nine teams

This year’s highly anticipated 97th edition of the Tannahill Golf Tournament will witness nine teams compete in a three day foursome challenge on April 15-17 for Seniors and Juniors.

Defending Champions Muthaiga Golf Club and hosts Royal Nairobi Golf Club will be joined by teams from Karen Country Club, VetLab Golf Club, Limuru Golf Club, Sigona Golf Club, Mombasa Golf Club, Kenya Railways Golf Club and the Western Combined Team.

During the event, each team will have eight players including juniors and players who are aged 55 and over.

Speaking to journalists at the Royal Golf Nairobi Club during a cheque presentation by Jamii Telkom yesterday, Captain Stanley Kirui said preparations were on top notch and that the course was in a great condition and ready for the event.

Kirui also stated that every club will play one match against each of the other clubs, eight players-a- side and the format was four-ball-better-ball match play.

“We have an interesting tournament ahead of us with many exciting players set to take part. Nine teams will be involved but for the beginning we will have a junior tournament as a curtain raiser from that Tuesday before the Seniors take part from Friday thereby setting the pace for the tournament proper during the subsequent weekend. We want to thank our sponsors this year led by Jamii Telkom for their support and we are looking ahead to a great tournament,” he said adding that the course set-up was complete especially the Fairways, Tee-Boxes and Greens which were in check.

He added: “Our players at Royal have been practicing for the last two months and they look sharp. Our Juniors are ready and raring to go. We will have different formats out there as part of the challenge but ultimately we expect a good competition this year. Our players under the residence professional Alfred Nandwa have been hard at work. In the future especially when we hit our centurion celebrations, we will be thinking of expanding our reach to invite players from the region and maybe from other Royal Clubs in Europe,” stated Kirui who revealed no team will be relegated  in this year’s edition.

Royal team captain Josiah Kogo was confident his assembled team would be ready to grab back their title that in recent times had gone to Muthaiga.

“We have won it four times in a row before but lately the competition has been tight with Muthaiga and Western having come hard at us. However, this year I believe we have a formidable team that can challenge well and as such we are only aiming to reclaim our Shield.