John Kitaka emerged as the overall winner of the Machakos Golf Club leg of the Bayer East Africa Golf Series on Saturday.
Kitaka, playing off handicap 19, delivered an impressive round of 47 Stableford points, finishing six points ahead of his closest challenger, Patrick Marang’u, who scored 41 Stableford points to claim the men’s category title.
Joe Mboya, playing off handicap 17, secured the runner-up position in the men’s category with 39 Stableford points.
Victor Mutwii, playing off handicap 11, rounded off the podium in third place with 38 points.
In the ladies’ category, Angelina Mutuku, playing off handicap 32, clinched the top spot with 37 points, edging out her nearest competitor, Mwongeli Nzioka, who carded 36 points while playing off handicap 10.
Florence Riungu, playing off handicap 24, finished third with a score of 35 points.
Among the guests, Isaac Kamau from Vetlab Sports Club, playing off handicap 22, topped the category with 39 points.
Timothy Rintari, playing off handicap 26, followed closely with 37 points to take the runner-up position.
In the subsidiary prizes, Mathew Mutambu, playing off handicap 53, won the men’s title with 41 points, while Purity Kioko claimed the ladies’ title with 40 points.
John Kinyua and Anthony Mwirigi, playing off handicaps 32 and 31, emerged as the first and second nine winners with 21 and 22 points, respectively.
For the special awards, Terra Saidimu and Nancy Kariuki won the longest drive contest in the men’s and ladies’ categories, respectively, while Vincent Musalia claimed the nearest-to-the-pin award.
The tournament attracted a field of 132 golfers and was sponsored by Bayer East Africa Limited as part of the company’s corporate outreach strategy.
This was Bayer’s second golf event of the year, following the first leg held at Nakuru Golf Club on March 8.
Bayer plans to host six more events this year to build on last year’s success, where the company organized ten tournaments across the country.
Speaking after the Machakos event, Isabellah Magale, Marketing and Communication Specialist at Bayer East Africa Limited, said they chose Machakos as a destination for our golf tournament because it is the land of smallholder farmers.
“We wanted to interact with them and connect with our distributors who sell our seeds and crop protection solutions to the farmers,” she said.
Bayer has been sponsoring golf for the last 10 years, hosting several events annually.
“Last year, we held a series of ten tournaments across different golf clubs as part of our 50-year celebrations for one of our products. This year, we aim to organize about eight events. We started at Nakuru Golf Club before coming to Machakos, and we plan to host six more events as part of our strategic engagements with stakeholders,” he said.
The series now moves to Nandi Bears Club in June.