Handicap 23 golfer from the Kenya Railways Golf Club, Irene Kimeu, carded a round of 41 points during her club’s leg of the 2021 NCBA Golf Series to be crowned overall winner on Saturday.
She becomes the first lady overall winner in the series, joining 17 other overall winners in the tournament who include two junior golfers.
Her excellent effort was two points better than her nearest challenger, Joe Ngacha – at handicap 13 – who carded a round of 39 points to emerge the winner in the men’s category; ahead of handicap 24 Joe Gogo who finished the round with 39 points to claim the men’s runner-up spot.
Among the ladies, handicap 21, Eunice Kilonzo, emerged the winner with 39 points ahead of Doris Night, at handicap 23, who recorded a similar haul of points to emerge runner-up in the category.
Among the juniors, handicap eight, Paash Padam, was crowned the winner with 34 points; as NCBA’s Group Director for Retail Banking, Tirus Mwithiga – at handicap 19, was crowned staff winner with 33 points.
In the Nines, Paul Orawo and Joseph Kagicha were respective winners in the first nine and the second nine with 23 and 19 points respectively. In the longest drive contest, Fidelis Kimanzi and Olive Njagi took the honours in the men’s and women’s categories respectively, while Jeff Kageche emerged winner in the nearest-to-the-pin contest.
The Kenya Railways Golf Club leg was the 18th event in the 2021 NCBA Golf Series calendar – which has so far featured 17 seniors’ events and one junior golf tournament. The leg brought together members from Railways and Golf Park golf clubs who combined to comprise an impressive field of 160 golfers.
The top three golfers from Railways – Irene Kimeu, Eunice Kilonzo, and Joe Ngacha – and the top two golfers from Golf Park – Minnie Mbue and Hillary Kipkosgey – qualified to play at the NCBA Golf Series finale which will be held at the Karen Country Club in December this year.
This now brings to 85 the number of golfers who have qualified to play in the finale event, being the top five finishers from the 17 seniors’ events that have been held so far.
Focus now shifts to the Royal Nairobi Golf Club for the 19th leg in the Series which will be played on Saturday, October 30, 2021. This will be the third event before the series wraps up at Karen and will be followed by tournaments at Muthaiga Golf Club and Ruiru Sports Club.
So far, over 2,000 golfers have taken part in the series since its inception in January this year.