Oldest Golf Tournament Tannahill Returns to Royal for 97th Edition

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 31- The 97th edition of the annual Tannahill Golf Tournament is set to take place from April 15-17 at the Royal Nairobi Golf Club.

The tournament is regarded as one of the biggest amateur golf events in Sub Saharan Africa and will bring together the best amateur players from nine golf clubs from Nairobi, Mombasa, and Western provinces to compete for coveted Tannahill Shield.

“Unlike other golf events, the Tannahill Golf Tournament is played by teams, instead of individuals of amateur golfers from various clubs who are keen to showcase their golfing skills and team spirit whilst enjoying the company of other competing golfers,” Royal Nairobi’s golf captain Stanley Kirui said.

“We have been in contact with all participating teams, and they are all excited and training hard so that they can win this coveted trophy,’’ added the captain.

The participating clubs this year are Royal Nairobi Golf Club, Mombasa Golf Club, Muthaiga Golf Club, Western Kenya, Limuru Country Club, Vet Lab Sports Club, Kenya Railways Golf Club, Sigona Golf Club and Karen Country Club.

Activities preceding the main tournament on Easter Sunday, April 17 will be the Junior Easter Tournament – whose participants will be juniors invited from all clubs in Kenya to compete for this trophy.

Seven teams have confirmed participation for the junior tournament.

For the first time, seniors will make a debut on the Good Friday morning of April 15 for the inaugural Tannahill Seniors Trophy.

The senior’s tournament is open to golfers over 55 years of age.

The Tannahill tournament is the brainchild of Major Arthur Tannahill and was inaugurated in 1924 as an annual event when the general committee of the then Nairobi Golf Club invited teams representing Mombasa, Nyeri, Kiambu, Nakuru and Muthaiga to participate in the tournament.

Every club plays one match against each of the other clubs, eight players a side and the format was four-ball-better-ball match play.

It is the only three-way competitive foursomes match play tournament in the world.

The Foursomes is a competition format in which a team is comprised of two players, and those two golfers alternate hitting the same ball sometime called “alternate shot” format.