John Mathai wins Nanyuki leg of NCBA Golf Series

Handicap nine home player, John Mathai, carded an excellent round of 38 points on Saturday to emerge overall winner of the Nanyuki Sports Club’s leg of the 2021 NCBA Golf Series. His impressive form saw him become the Series’ eighth winner, with thirteen more legs to go.

His stellar effort saw him edge out fellow clubmate Peter Rimui (9), who carded a round of 36 to clinch top honours in the men’s category, ahead of Cyprian Bundi (1), who finished the day with 35 points to claim runner’s-up spot in the category.

In the ladies’ category, Dr. Samantha Mathu (27) took top honours with a round of 24 points ahead of Lucy Njuguna (11), who finished the round with 21 points. In subsequent events, Gurung Tek (16) emerged as the first nine winner with 21 Stableford points, as Kelvin Gitonga (12) claimed the honours for the second nine with 19 Stableford points.

The Nanyuki Sports Club leg, the eighth in the NCBA Golf Series, was the second event of a doubleheader weekend in the calendar, which featured a Club Nite at the Nyeri Golf Club on Friday, July 16, 2021, that was sponsored by NCBA Group.

At the Nyeri event, handicap nine home player, Felix Kibicho, was the 18-hole winner on countback, having carded a round of 35 points ahead of handicap 19, Charles Wanjau, who posted a round of 35 to claim the runner-up spot.

Meanwhile, Dr. Richard Kabugi (28) was crowned the nine-hole winner on countback, having carded 18 Stableford points ahead of Dr. Ephantus Mate (14), who finished the day runner-up in the category with 18 points.

In other events, George Kiguta (10) was the first nine winner with 21 points as Dr. Samuel Kiragu claimed the honours in the second nine on countback with 19 points.

Speaking on the side-lines of the Nanyuki leg of the series, NCBA Group Managing Director, John Gachora, said:

“Selecting Nanyuki to be part of this series was driven by two things: one is that we have many customers here, and part of what we do through the NCBA Golf Series is to spend time with our customers, so Nanyuki becomes that important for us.

“The second thing is just the importance of golf to Nanyuki. As you notice, Nanyuki has been such an important club golf-wise; if you walk around the course, you see a lot of NCBA branding, which means we have been part of that golf story for Nanyuki. So, for us, it is exciting to be here,” he said.

As part of the activities, NCBA donated indigenous tree seedlings and took part in a tree-planting exercise at the Nanyuki Sports Club as part of the Bank’s ‘Change the Story’ initiative – a one million indigenous tree nursery endeavour undertaken in partnership with other like minded partners.

Through the initiative, NCBA Bank encourages members across participating golf clubs to actively participate in tree planting to attain 10 percent forest cover across the country by 2022.

Commenting on this, John Gachora said:

“One of the things we also did was plant trees at Nanyuki Sports Club, something we have been doing at every golf course where we have had NCBA Golf Series. It is part of the change the story initiative, which we started in 2018, and we believe that by planting trees, we can begin to change the environment for the better.

“In so doing, you change the story that people tell. If there are floods, they should not be causing havoc, and trees do stop floods. If there is a time when it is dry, having trees the shade that comes with it and the fact that it keeps weather and weather patterns right means that we can change the story; and that is the idea so encouraging everybody to plan to care for trees.”

The series now moves to the Karen Country Club on July 24, 2021, for the ninth event on the calendar.