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The DP World Tour is back after a two-week enforced absence and now the Tour moves onto Africa for one week in Kenya and two weeks in South Africa before returning to the Middle East and the reconvened Qatar Masters at the end of the month. Hopefully, that event will take place, unlike the Indian Open which has now been put back to 2023 after attempts were thwarted to re-schedule it for next month. The Kenya Open has been in existence since 1967, initially on the Safari Tour, which was taken over by the European Tour in the late 1970s, then on the Challenge Tour in 1991 until 2019 when the event was elevated to this Tour. Until this century, this event was almost exclusively played at this week’s venue, Muthaiga Golf Club, but more recently it has shared the event with Karen Golf Club to the south of Nairobi. Muthaiga Golf Club dates back to the early 20th century, but underwent a major refurbishment in 2004 with Peter Matkovich being the architect. A primary area of renovation was the greens which were converted to bentgrass and are reportedly very fast. Muthaiga is now a 7,228 yard par-71 course with five par-3s, nine par-4s and four par-5s. That may seem a typical length for a Tour course, but the course sits at almost 1,800 metres in altitude, so it will play much shorter. There are tight, tree-lined, undulating fairways and small greens, so it is not an easy course and there are no particular advantages for the big-hitters with dog-legs and lakes a particular feature on the back nine. The average score since the renovations is 13-under-par. Given that this will be the first time that this course has hosted a recent European Tour event, there are few stats available for the previous events here. So while there is plenty of course and event form to draw upon, there are only two angles offered this week. Angles to consider: 1. Fairways and greens Given the course description above, this is an obvious angle. According to Ben Coley, who has been to Muthaiga, only the 17th hole offers any genuine eagle chances for the big-hitters. For the other holes, he says, “a more intricate, balanced test which has seen fairways-and-greens golfers thrive”. That fits the course description and the aerial flyovers. 2. Scrambling will also be important Given the small size of the greens, which help to reinforce the importance of the first angle, scrambling will also be important. As reported above, the average winning score here is not particularly low and a deft touch around the greens on this undulating course will be important to keep a good score. Selections The above angles have been used to create a shortlist from which the following players has been selected. Oliver Bekker
It has been an impressive few months for the South African since graduating from the Challenge Tour: he finished 2nd in the South African Open (albeit belatedly not a DP World Tour event) and then had back-to-back top-10 finishes in Ras al Khaimah last month. He does have a good record here from the Challenge Tour with finishes of 18th, 14th and 6th in his four previous visits, and he is a player with a good short game: he ranks inside the top-25 in scrambling on this Tour. Masahiro Kawamura
Kawamura is another player in good form prior to the short break, finishing 6th in the Ras al Khaimah Classic. That was built on a very solid fairways-and-greens game, ranking inside the top-10 for driving accuracy and strokes gained: approach the green that week, as well as ranking inside the top-30 in driving accuracy in each of the last two seasons. Combined with his scrambling (15th this year; 34th last year) and his par-3 scoring stats (33rd this year; 17th last year), he meets both angles for this week. Richard Mansell
Mansell is more speculative, but he does have the advantage of having played in the Southern Africa Tour and Challenge Tour co-sanctioned events in South Africa in recent weeks, finishing in the top-20 in the Dimension Data Pro-Am, though having been 4th at the start of the final round. He is typically well-suited to more open courses, but it is worth recalling that he ranked inside the top-10 for greens in regulation on the European Tour last year (and 16th in strokes gained: tee to green). Tips 1-2; -4.48pts 1pt e.w. Oliver Bekker 33/1 (Boyle Sports 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8) 8th 1pt e.w. Masahiro Kawamura 45/1 (Boyle Sports 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8) 42nd 1pt e.w. Richard Mansell 100/1 (Boyle Sports 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8) wd
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