Kenya’s hopes of lifting the Region IV trophy dashed by Rwanda’s amateur team

This is the first time that Kenya is hosting the event, after lifting the trophy last year in Daresalaam, Tanzania.
The tournament attracted a total of 8 countries: Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Seychelles and hosts Kenya.

Rwanda’s amateur golf team dashed Kenya’s hopes of lifting the Region IV trophy for the 2 time during Saturday’s semi-final play of the Region IV tournament that took place at par 72 Nyali Golf and Country Club course.

Kenya- who play host to the tournament for the first time, were on a winning streak from the first round- with an aggregate 429 strokes against Uganda’s 443 and Rwanda’s 472. The winning streak came to a halt during Round 4’s matchplay against Rwanda when the visitors upset the hosts to quash any hopes of lifting the trophy. Uganda also trashed neighbors Tanzania to meet Rwanda in the finals. Hosts Kenya had to settle for a 3 place position with Tanzania coming fourth. Ethiopia, Burundi, Seychelles and DR Congo came 5, 6, 7 and 8 respectively.

Speaking about the loss, Kenya’s Coach Kimani lauded the local team for the effort and pointed out the unpredictability of golf and congratulated the winners for a great game.

“Like any other sport, there is never a guaranteed winner. We came here expecting to win but unfortunately, we lost out to our able opponents, Rwanda. The boys played well and it was very unfortunate that we lost out during the crucial stage of the tournament,” said Kimani.

Uganda Golf Union’s President, Innocent Kihika said that the win was very important both to Uganda and the team.

“The last time we won the Region IV tournament (then known as East Africa Challenge) was in 2016 in Ethiopia. We came here to win and we accomplished our objective,” said Innocent.

This is the first time that Kenya is hosting the event, after lifting the trophy last year in Daresalaam, Tanzania. The tournament attracted a total of 8 countries: Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Seychelles and hosts Kenya.

Kenya had the best strokeplay scores with Daniel Nduva having the best scores (136 strokes) for the two rounds. Uganda’s Adolf Muhumuza’s came second with 138 strokes.

The format of play for the first two rounds was strokeplay where the best three scores for each country were used to determine the ranking of the participating countries. The countries were then pitted against one another in Matchplay knockout rounds.