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When Open was attractive for non-golfing reasons

 

The last time I wrote about golf in this column, I recounted my dalliance with the sport as an unenthusiastic writer and a reluctant golfer.

I, however, failed to give an ending to a comical incident involving a former colleague who was once thrown out of Muthaiga Golf Club.

It happened to be the Captain’s Night at Muthaiga Golf Club with food and drink just about to be served at the club house after action concluded on the course.

That’s precisely when the guy got kicked out. Why? His weather-beaten track suit and baseball cap, which had seen better days, were deemed to have grossly violated the club house’s strict dress code.

So out he went into the night as the club members and a handful of journalists who had been invited to provide courage made a beeline for the buffet.

But as if being thrown out under such embarrassing circumstances wasn’t bad enough, the guy quietly retreated to the verandah which overlooks the lush fairways of the golf course.

His carefully hatched plan was to have one of us pass on a plate of food and some bottles of beer to wash it down in his not so inconspicuous hideout.

Apparently, missing out on dinner was too steep a price for him to pay! Now, I’ve been made to understand that the organisers of the Magical Kenya Open, which teed off on Thursday at the par 71 Muthaiga Golf Club, have put in place stringent Covid-19 measures for the media during the four-day event which concludes on Sunday.

Each media house has only been allocated two accreditation while a certificate of Covid-19 vaccination is mandatory for foreign journalists. Last year, when the event was hosted by Karen Country Club, the championship was closed to fans due to Covid-19.

This time round, the organisers have set up an entertainment village where more than 8,000 fans are expected to follow the event. But it has not always been like this.

A few years ago, the Kenya Open was one of those events on the local sporting calendar which many journalists always looked forward to.

Well, not that they don’t look forward to it anymore. They still do, but perhaps not in the same sense. The irony here is that as part of the DP World Tour series, the Kenya Open has significantly grown in stature in recent years.

There was a time when applying for and getting media accreditation for the event was not as rigorous as it is today.

Those were the days when more than providing coverage, there was an extra incentive for journalists to show up at the event venue.

Corporate sponsors were in the habit of setting up media tents where journalists would converge to lubricate their parched throats as action unfolded on the course.

Food and airtime vouchers were also often liberally dished by some of these sponsors.

That was when Kenya Open used to be Kenya Open. You just had to be there! Yes, the high turnout of journalists at every edition of the event was, for lack of a better word, usually motivated by non-golfing reasons.

I’m told that is no longer the case nowadays, thanks in part to the pandemic.
This is just as good, if only to spare many would-be inebriated journalists the embarrassment of being thrown out of the golf club.    BY DAILY NATION    

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