RWANDAN pair of Jean Baptista Hakizimana and Emmanuel Ruterana has been confirmed to participate in the Grand Final of the KCB East African Golf Tour which tees off this weekend at Nyali golf club.

According to an entry list sent from tournament director Elisha Kasuku to Times Sport, Ruterana and Hakizimana are among the 48 professional golfers, who will battle it out for Kshs 3 million purse at stake.

The pair has been in Kenya for acclimatization in order to adequately prepare for the tournament that will be graced by the cream of the golf elite in the region with the hosts posing the biggest challenge.

Ruterana said recently, "I have so far trained effectively and the golf course is quite good. The only problem is that it is very windy here in Mombasa but I will cope,”
The Rwandan duo is being sponsored by Serena Hotel and Ernst and Young.

The winner of the tournament will take home Kshs 525,000, the runner up will receive Kshs 300,000 while the third golfer will pocket Kshs 236,000.

Fabulous prizes will also be given to the fourth position, fifth position, guest winner, guest runner up, staff winner, staff runner up and junior winner.

So far, Simon Ngige leads the order of merit and a winner of several rounds of the KCB East African Golf Tour will face stiff competition from Nakuru’s Richard Ainley and James Lorum who is the club’s pro.

Also expected in Nyali are Mumias Dismas Indiza who is in top form, Vetlab’s Ali Kimani, Brian Njoroge and South Africa-based Anil Shah.

The KCB East African Golf Tour is a culmination of a lot of effort to nurture the KCB Pro-Am golf series into an international standard golf tour along the lines of the US PGA Tour and the European Tour.

This year, the KCB Group sponsored the Tour to a tune of Kshs 12.5 million up from the previous Kshs 950,000 in 2007.

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