“The Magical Mutahi Moment”, the moment Mutahi Kibugu made that birdie putt on hole 18 in the 2nd round of the 2023 Magical Kenya Open was simply magical. You could feel the electricity and excitement in the air of the Kenyan fans as they saw one of their own, not just make the cut but put himself in a position to make a move in the 3rd round. 

It is yet another Kenya Open where only one Kenyan golfer made the cut. The usual, and very valid, questions are being asked all over social media platforms… Why do our local pros and elite amateurs struggle in the Kenya Open? What needs to be done to create more “magical Mutahi moments” in the same Kenya Open tournament? 

Reasons 

This article tries to objectively tackle the reasons that hinder Kenyan top talents from performing. The first reason is the level of preparation and exposure. Safari Tour is the only opportunity for Kenyan pros to compete at a high level. Winning is rarely about talent but more about performance. Practice alone does not guarantee ability to perform. The ability to perform in the big stage is largely a factor of not only preparation but exposure and experience as well.  

The last Safari Tour is the only local opportunity for Kenyan pros to compete. The just concluded season had only 5 hastily organized tournaments; Limuru, Sigona, Vipingo, Karen, and Muthaiga.  The only other event that pros could compete was Uganda Open. As Kenyan pros are limited to six opportunities to compete, the DP Tour pros who come for the MKO have more than 30 opportunities to compete in their circuit and most play in more than 20 tournaments in a year around the world. 

How then, do you expect the Kenyan pro to be adequately prepared to compete with these visiting pros who are challenged and tested every other week, year round in high level tournaments. If one dares to look at the world rankings of the players in the field, they’ll be surprised to see several top 100 ranked players in the field. All Kenyan’s are ranked position 3241, basically meaning they are unranked in the world. This means, Safari Tour does not even meet the requirements for players to be ranked in the world rankings. 

On the experience and exposure benchmark, the Kenyan pro is already handicapped and starting at a disadvantage.  This article does not even cover the challenges that these pro face just to participate in the few events the Safari Tour has to offer. That will be covered as a separate topic. 

Possible Remedies 

When one identifies a challenge or problem, they have a duty to at least try to propose possible solutions or identify people who can address the problems. So what are the possible ways to fix this challenge of exposure and experience? 

One of the obvious solutions is for Safari Tour to offer more tournaments. Ideally there should be a minimum of 15–20 tournaments a year. These would give the Kenyan pro opportunity to keep their games sharp and the necessary experience that comes with being in the spotlight week in, week out. There are many ways to accomplish this and they’ll also be discussed in a different article. 

In addition to more local or regional tournaments, Safari Tour needs to explore the idea of reciprocal agreement with other tours like the Sunshine Tour or Asian. Such an arrangement should see at least the top 10 Kenyan pros being given cards to these tours. This expands the exposure of the best Kenyan talents on the international stage, which is most likely to result in more of the “magical Mutahi moments”. 

Another way to get elite amateurs out of the country for the experience and exposure. This can be done by making sure young elite amateurs get golf scholarships to colleges abroad. If they get to compete in college circuits, some of which offer higher level of competitions than the Safari Tour, they’ll be better equipped to compete at the world stage. This duty needs not to be left to the wealthy parents who can afford it, but be spearheaded by the local golf organizations to give all elite players a chance. 

Last but not least, there needs to be proper sensitization of the importance of coaching. Generally most elite golfers in Kenya are self taught or have received very little coaching. Only a few privileged ones seek coaching of any kind. The value of coaching needs to be appreciated. Even the best players on PGA have coaches, and if that is evidence enough of the importance of coaching, nothing will be. There are a few qualified coaches in Kenya. There’s need to trust and embrace them for there to be significant progress in the current crop of pros. While at it, building the capacity for more qualified coaches needs to a responsibility of the professional golf bodies in Kenya. 

Conclusion

I am sure there are other great ideas out there that can help address this issues.  It is up to the bodies that run golf in the country to tap into the people with these ideas and embrace them. Unfortunately, these organizations feel threatened when challenged with such ideas instead of embracing them and finding ways to accommodate them. Without leaders who are willing to bring in people with good ideas to the table, Kenyan fans are going to experience the same frustrations for many years to come. 

So, as the Magical Kenyan Open moves to the 3rd round, let’s wish Mutahi the very best.  Golf is an individual sport, but he is also carrying the flag.  If he perform well, we’ll all be proud as Kenyans of his success. But as a golfing fraternity we need to rethink a few things about how we run golf in Kenya to ensure we have more “magical Mutahi moments” to cheer for in future Kenya Opens. 

The next article will look into how the sponsorship model plays a part in the dismal performance of the Kenyan elite players.