Tournament Director, Andy Watt Remarks at the Launch of the 2018 KCB Karen Masters
Tournament Director, Andy Watt
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to this update for the second KCB Karen Masters. It’s really great that you are here in such numbers, just one month away from the event and on the eve of another tournament being played in a distant land and with different sized balls.
The KCB Karen Masters has transitioned into a distinctly African tournament designed to promote the game of golf in Africa and to support local players in their quest to become world beating golfers.
Karen Country Club have partnered with the Sunshine Tour in South Africa to bring around 100 of their top-ranking players to Karen next month to compete against 32 of Kenya’s finest, as well as some great players from other African countries, to give a field of 152 professional players.
From the Sunshine Tour there will obviously be a large South African contingent alongside players from Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe and some from off the continent; Brazil, Ireland, England, USA, Australia, Sweden, Portugal and even Chile will be represented – This is the first time that the Sunshine tour has sanctioned an event in East Africa and it will be the start of a long relationship to help develop the game of golf in this part of the world.
I think the really exciting thing about this event, is the balance of the Sunshine tour and other African pros, this unique combination was primarily designed to support the PGK as they develop their professional players, it affords the opportunity to play against the best on the continent as well as gaining invitations from both the sunshine tour and the invited countries to travel and play in other countries – with this focus I see the KCB Karen Masters as playing a vital role in African Golf development. It’s great to see one of Kenya’s sons, Stephan Engel-Andersen already playing on the Sunshine Tour and “crossing the divide” of local to international if you like, wouldn’t it be great to have many more Kenyan pros battling it out on the global stage in the future?!
In addition to the Pro’s, hammering it out over the 4 days of the tournament, there will be 4 leading amateur golfers with their eye on the professional game as well as a series of golf clinics for our juniors conducted by the pros as well as a Junior golf shoot-out competition on the Saturday, to help the juniors both improve their game and equally encourage them to play more golf.
I’d like to thank KCB for yet again being the title sponsor of the event and at the same time recognize all the other sponsors – Safaricom, D.T. Dobie, Toyota, Tamarind Group, Kenya Airways, Britam Holdings Plc, Wilken, Meridian Healthcare and Copy Cat printers – Without this excellent support, running this type of event would not be possible. In addition, there is a team of dedicated Karen Club members as well as club staff and management who work tirelessly to deliver a world class event – great job everybody and many thanks!
Ladies and Gentlemen, there’s a month to go but were ready; the course is in excellent condition and all the preparations are well underway, the players are almost all signed up, travel booked and ready for you all to experience world class golf right here in Kenya!
