Home player, Shiv Mandavia, carded an impressive round of 45 points on Saturday at the Sigona Golf Club to secure the overall win of his Club’s leg of the 2021 NCBA Golf Series.
The handicap 32 player’s imposing performance was enough to fend off the challenge by Sagar Bhatt (24), who carded 41 points to emerge winner in the men’s category ahead of Rajesh Karia (20), who claimed the men’s runner-up spot with a total of 41 points.
In the ladies’ category, Esther Ngigi (20) shot an impressive round of 42 points to emerge the lady winner ahead of Zipporah Wachira (6), who carded 38 points to claim the runner-up spot.
In subsequent members’ events, Kirti Chauhan and Palkesh Shah were crowned first nine and second nine winners, having carded 25 and 22 points respectively, while Chets Murkhjee won the nearest to the pin award for his approach at the fifth hole.
Zamin Nasser took the longest drive award in the men’s category for his shot off the 13th tee, with Sobhna Pattel took the prize in the ladies’ category.
Meanwhile, NCBA’s Charles Omondi (22) was crowned staff winner after carding a round of 38 points.
The Sigona Golf Club event was the fourth leg of NCBA’s 21-event golf series. Over 200 golfers participated in the occasion, which also featured a tree-planting exercise as part of the bank’s “Change the Story” tree-planting initiative.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event,Tirus Mwithiga, Retail Banking Group Director, NCBA said the bank is looking at reorganizing events disrupted by the March lockdown, adding that the series will culminate in a grand finale at the Karen Country Club later in the year.
“We are very pleased to be back for the NCBA Golf Series. We have had three events, with this leg being the fourth. About four events were interrupted by the second lockdown that happened, and we hope to reorganize them later,” noted Mr. Mwithiga.
“It is a series of 21 events which will culminate in the grand finale that will be held at the Karen Country Club. So, in every Club that we visit, we are inviting the club members to participate, and those who play well will then have another chance to join us at Karen for the finale,” he said.
Commenting on the bank’s junior golf development program, Mwithiga said the aim is to nurture young talent to prepare them early to challenge for top honours in the leading global golf tournaments hosted in Kenya.
“We will also have two events for juniors: one will be at the Karen Country Club in August, and another one in December at the Muthaiga Golf Club Club. These events will be open to all juniors nationally and not just the junior golfers in those clubs,” noted Mr. Mwithiga.
“It is part of our initiative to support the development of golf. It is a dream one day, one of our juniors will win the big events that are now being hosted in Kenya, and we hope that this erase will go a long way in supporting that,” noted Mr. Mwithiga.
Mwithiga said the golf series will be supporting NCBA’s ‘Change the Story’ initiative by involving all golf clubs taking part in the tournament.
“We are proud to announce that the NCBA Golf Series is supporting the ‘Change the Story’ initiative – a program by NCBA and like-minded partners to plant 30,000 trees across the country this year. We will be doing this as we visit all the clubs around Kenya and all our other partners with this initiative. We only have one planet, and I think if we take care of it, we will all enjoy these beautiful golf courses and continue to protect the environment,” concluded Mr. Mwithiga.
The series will now shift to the Coast for a double-header header at Mombasa and Nyali Golf Clubs on the 25th and the 26th of June, respectively.
