After a five-year wait, Royal Nairobi Golf Club on Sunday claimed victory in the thrilling 99th edition of the Tannahill Shield Tournament.
Royal Nairobi Golf Club, which has been the host of the tournament for over nine decades, last won the prestigious trophy in 2019. The tournament is regarded as one of the most prestigious amateur golf events in sub-Saharan Africa.
This year’s participating teams were Royal Nairobi Golf Club, Muthaiga Country Club, Karen Country Club, Vetlab Sports Club, Railway Golf Club, Western Kenya, Mombasa Golf Club, Limuru Country Club and the defending champions Sigona Golf Club.
On Sunday, during the fourth round of the tournament, Royal Nairobi beat the Western combined team by a narrow margin of one point to emerge champions.
Royal Nairobi collected 14 points in round one, followed by seven points in round two, 11 points in the third round and seven points in the final fourth round on Sunday to give them 39 points.
Western garnered 10 in round one, 16 in round two, with identical 6 points in the third and fourth rounds to raise their score to 38 points
Muthaiga Golf Club came in third with 36 points.
Despite picking nine points on Sunday, defending champions Sigona Golf Club, finished fourth with 33 points, followed by Railway Golf Club with 32 points.
Vet Lab was sixth with 29 points, Mombasa was seventh with 28 and Limuru and Karen finished eighth and ninth with 27 and 26 points respectively.
Royal Nairobi Golf Club, founded in 1906, is the only club in Kenya with royal status and it reciprocates with all other Royal chartered clubs worldwide.
The Tannahill Shield is the brainchild of Major Arthur Tannahill and was inaugurated in 1924 as an annual event when the general committee of the then-Nairobi Golf Club invited teams representing Mombasa, Nyeri, Kiambu Nakuru, and Muthaiga to participate in the tournament.
Every club plays one match against each of the other clubs, eight players a side and the format was four-ball-better-ball match play.
It is the only three-way competitive foursomes match play tournament in the world. The Foursomes is a competition format in which a team comprises two players, and those two golfers alternate hitting the same ball sometimes called the “alternate shot” format.