Magical Kenya Open

After a nice week off I’m Dubai recharging the batteries I flew to Kenya to take part in the Magical Kenya Open. It was my first time in Kenya and from what I’d heard it was going to be a much different experience than the first few tournaments I had played.

I flew into the Nairobi Airport and took a shuttle from the airport to the host hotel. Initially, it was a bit of a shock travelling around Kenya, a lot of people everywhere, not quite as modern as the places we had visited previously but kind of what I had expected.

The golf course was interesting, we were playing at about 5000ft elevation so the ball was going about 12% further than it would at sea level which definitely took a little getting used to. It was relatively tight and quite a few irons were hit from the tee to try and keep the ball in position and be able to attack from there.

I managed my game well the first day, hit a few decent shots and got around in -3 to be sitting inside the Top 10. The 2nd round was ok too, I got off to a bit of a slow start but really ground out my 2nd 9 holes and managed to shoot a solid -1 and be comfortably inside the cut line going into the weekend which was nice.

Rounds 3 and 4 were a real struggle for me, I got an eye infection and woke up on Saturday pretty uncomfortable, by the 10th hole I could barely see from my left eye was hitting it all over the place, the two were slightly related but I could feel my swing falling apart anyway. I scrambled really well and managed to shoot -1 and still keep myself in the tournament.

My eye was a little better in round 4 but my swing unfortunately wasn’t, I probably had my worst ball striking round of the year and finished strong to shoot +1 and unfortunately tumble down the leaderboard into a T42 finish.

This game is hard and I’m struggling at the moment but I’ve been in this position many times before and fought myself out of it and that’s what I plan to do.

I’m in South Africa this week for the SDC Championship, it looks like we’re going to get some wind so the tough conditions could favour me, we will see.

Thanks for the support team, Sam.