Junior Golf Foundation assures young golfers of more opportunities

The Junior Golf Foundation has lined up 48 tournaments across the country in 2025 to attract more junior golfers to play and get WAGA ranking points.

The first tournament of the year was the NCBA US Kids Nairobi Spring tournament at the VetLab Sports Club. Despite the early season blues, some golfers posted impressive results to take an early lead in the rankings.

In the boys 13-14 years category, Aidan Gachora was in sublime form with a score of 1 over par 73 to win the category. Amar Shas was not far behind as he posted 75 points, two strokes behind Gachora, while Tsorav Soni finished third with a score of seven over par 79.

Another competitive category was the girls 11-12 years old category, where Chloe Chiuri played five over par 79 to finish first, followed by Siqian Yu, only one stroke behind. Ashley Muyela was a further stroke behind as the top three players were separated by only three strokes.

Junior Golf Foundation president Regina Gachora says there is more to come from the junior golfers, especially after the impressive results at the Africa Amateur Golf Championship in South Africa earlier this month.

Three juniors, Channel Wangare, Kanana Muthomi and Bianca Ngecu were part of team Kenya, finishing 4th, 11th and 12th.

“It means that we (JGF) are doing the right thing; we are developing talent and the talent is being seen all over Africa,” added Gachora.

JGF is targeting to have a product of JGF qualifying for the Magical Kenya Open and competing to win the tournament in the five years.  

The pipeline is already there with Njoroge Kibugu playing at the Magical Kenya Open in 2022 as a junior. He has progressed to qualify for the 2025 Magical Kenya Open as the best-ranked Kenyan pro.

JGF has put the best junior golfers in the national team where they are training three times a week.

“It elevates their level of golf. Any sport, and not just golf, is about training. It is about good training, good drills and practising your sport as best as you can. If we continue with the same trajectory, then we will have many Kenyans qualifying on their own right and not fighting for the few slots allocated for Kenya,” she concluded.