JGF makes strides as US kids tourney enters fifth leg at Vetlab

The fifth leg of the Junior Golf Foundation US Kids Local tour witnessed a high turnout of golfers even on the waiting list in an over-subscribed tournament at the Vetlab sports club.

JGF president Regina Gachora says this is good progress in junior golf given that the juniors are becoming better with every tournament from the results they are posting.

He said: “The parents are seeing growth. They are seeing their children who started playing with scores of 65 and 60 are now dropping the scores into the 40s. Those who were playing in the 50s are now coming down to below 40s and 30s. They are able to see that they can now be able to qualify for international tournaments. There is a pathway and the parents and juniors can see it, which is why the tournaments are so well subscribed.”

The high number of entrants has created fierce competition within all the age brackets of competition. No one is now guaranteed a podium position despite the many tournaments they play in the series.

“We are seeing some good champions coming out of it. The old ones who came in the first season and showed us dust are not the same people anymore. Newer faces are coming in and playing much better golf, so the competition is now stiff and very exciting. We never know who is going to win these days, we wait for the results to figure out who won which is a good place to be in golf,” she added.

The president also encouraged the junior players to practice more and play in as many tournaments as possible. This is one of the reasons behind the growth of the sport among juniors.

“We are being recognized globally. People are actually watching Kenya and it is a really good space to be in. The next three to five years a lot of these junior players will be scratch golfers (golfers who shoot par and below and are handicap zero) because as long as they practice, as long as they play more tournaments, they will be good golfers,” observed Gachora.

"The winners in the various categories are now playing an average of below 40 in all the US Kids tournaments. The target is to get them to play 36 (par) and under consistently by the age of 10."

In some of the results from Vetlab, the boys and girls 13-14 years old proved to be the most competitive. In the boys’ competition, Mitansh Thacker won the category with a score of 40 (+4). He was followed by Nehemiah Dinkins with a score of 44 and Tsevi Soni in third with a score of 45.

On the girls' competition of 13-14 years, Marya Nyambura emerged the winner with a score of 54, followed by Imani Njoki and Yolanda Yu who tied for second with a score of 58.

In the boys under 12 category, Aidan Gachora was impressive with a score of 40 to win the competition. He turned the tables on the previous leg winner, Amar Shah who scored 42