Eldoret Golf Club hosted the inaugural and very successful 2022 Eldowas ProAm tournament on November 12-13. This tournament brought together 48 pros and top amateurs. This article we look at the Eldowas ProAm by the numbers to determine the key to success on the event.
George Felix of Railways Golf Club emerged the winner after shooting scores on 5 under and 1 under on day 1 and 2 respectively. He had to withstand a great charge by Geoffrey Kubwa from Muthaiga to hold on to the wire to wire win. So what was their keys for the great showing?
Felix plays a clean 5 under on day one without dropping any shot. On day two he made 5 birdies but also gave up 4 bogeys for a 1 under. Cumulatively though, he was 5 under on par 5s for the two days. He managed a cumulative 2 under on par 4s and 1 over on par 3s. Clearly, the great scoring on par 5s saw him take the title. The last birdie on par 5 hole 18 fended off the eagle from eagle that was going to force a tie breaker.
Kubwa on the other hand brought tidy cards on both days dropping shots on 2 holes each day. He had a cumulative score of 6 under on par 5s. 5 of those came on day two where he played 5 under scoring well on all par 5s with 3 birdies and an impressive eagle on the last hole.
Overall Tournament Analysis
Clearly, par 5s were the key to the good showing for the top 2 players. Surprisingly, neither par 3s and par 4s played much role in separating the players. That means one needed to manage par 3s and par 4s and ensure they capitalized on the gettable par 5s.
Generally, most people played better on day 2 with more scores under par than day 1. It might be an indication that people got familiar with the course through day 1 play. Many of the players played in Nairobi clubs which have vastly different greens. It suggests that there might be a correlation to familiarity of the course to scoring.
Interesting Stats
One of the intestine stats was by Michael Alunga from Uganda. He was 8 under on par 5s with 6 birdies and an eagle with a solo par on the second day. While he played the key par 5 holes well, he negated the effort by play 4 over on par 3s and a similar cumulative score on par 4s.
Mike Kisia also played 8 under for two days on par 5s; 2 eagles and 4 birdies over 2 rounds. This was not the story in the last event in Limuru where he failed to capitalize on par 5s. He however played badly on par 3 scoring 5 over cumulatively for the two rounds. While he had a decent 3 over on par 4s.
Day 1 Analysis
Day one saw an average scoring of 76.4 for the whole field but 71.1 for the top 15 players. Par 4 hole 4 proved to the hardest hole with an average score of 4.83. It was followed by par 4, hole 10 with a 4.65 average score. Par 5, hole 13 was the easiest hole giving an average score of 4.67. The second easiest hole was par 5, hole 18 with an average score of 4.87. Interestingly, holes 3, 4, and 11 had zero birdies for day.
Day 2 Analysis
The scoring improved on day two with average score falling to 75.36 for the field and 70.8 for the top 15 players. This time, par 4, hole 10 was the hardest hole for the day with a 4.71 average score. It was following by par 3,, hole 16 with an average score of 3.56. Par 5 hole 13 was the easiest hole for the second day running. It had an average score of 4.8. The second easiest hole was par 5, hole 1 which gave an average score of 4.82.
