From when a golfer takes their first swing of the golf club, to when they learn the ABCs of the sport and as they take their first tentative steps on the fairways, they always have someone on their side who acts as their helper.
This someone is known as a caddie, and their job is to provide logistical support and give a golfer advice and moral support.
While the impression might be that a caddie is there to be seen but not heard unless addressed, a caddie is integral to a golfer’s life.
Caddies are experts as they spend all their working time on the course. During a round, in addition to carrying the golf bags, they aid in choosing golf clubs, clean the balls, rake the bunkers and sand traps, and act as trainers, imparting technical finesse to a golfer’s game.
Due to their intimate knowledge of the game and the golf course, caddies regularly crossover to become great golf players. Former caddies turned professional golfers David Wakhu and Eric Ooko are great examples of the heights a caddie can rise to on the greens.
The Kenya National Caddies Association is the umbrella body for all the caddies in Kenya. Through partnerships with corporates like Safaricom, it seeks to nurture, develop and promote caddies golf through various initiatives.
For the national coordinator Peter Mbatia, the caddies’ tournament, which was part of the inaugural Safaricom Golf Tour, was a great boost to the achievement of their vision, “many caddies joined wherever they are at the club level to play golf, and they were competing amongst themselves to see who would be sponsored by the club to go and play a particular leg. So many caddies participated in the tournament, even those who were not playing before.”
The caddies played in 8 of the 14 legs of the tour, with the caddies’ final played at the Great Rift Valley Golf Club. James Ngugi of Kenya Railways Golf Club and Naomi Njeri of VetLab Sports Club were top of the class.
In addition to fostering action on the greens, the association also caters to the social welfare of the lives of the caddies. This is done through creating saccos and self-help groups, as well as organizing training for the caddies to be coaches and umpires.
Safaricom invested 100 million shillings on its inaugural golf tour to tap, nurture and grow golfing talent across the country.
