Growing up, I always knew that golf was a game for rich, old(er) men who had the time and money to spend their entire days at golf clubs, until I met the young golfers at the Junior tournament in the ongoing Safaricom Golf Tour.
As part of the regional tour around the country, Safaricom is conducting Junior Golf clinics and tournaments on Sunday where hundreds of kids from that particular region get to practice, play and compete against each other in the Junior Golf tournament – and that’s where I met Sophia Nesbitt.
Sophia Nesbitt, (10) and Adam Nesbitt (8) are just 2 of the hundreds of kids you can find playing golf at the kids tournament at the Safaricom Golf Tour. They both started playing golf in kindergarten under the training of Coach Casio.
Adam started at the age of 4 while his big sister started at the age of 5 and joined the U.S Kids Golf Foundation last year. The U S. Kids Golf Foundation and the Kenya Golf Union got into a one of a kind partnership with a desire to increase the number of girls and boys playing the game while having some develop into elite players, and has since become a model for other countries to adopt.
Growing Interest
Sophia explains that they got more interested in playing especially internationally after watching the movie ‘The Short Game’ on Netflix
The Short Game is a documentary on some of the best young golfers in the world, and when I say young, I mean like 7 years old. The film takes us through some of the obstacles and successes that these young golfers go through in order to compete in the U.S. Kids Golf World Championship in Pinehurst, North Carolina.
“It’s Adam’s 12th competition so far and he’s won 11 of them, Sophia has played 11, won 3 and come in 2nd and 3rd place for the rest of them,” their mum proudly tells me. “They’ve both qualified for competitions in 8 countries and are going to South Africa in April.”
Unending support from family
“There are good days and bad days. There are days when the course favours you and there are days it doesn’t and you have to know how to control your mind to move on to the next hole,” says Sophia.
“My mum says block out the failure and focus on the next hole and what you can do better. She along with my grandmother also taught me how to control my anger at the course, that is not to throw my club in anger if I don’t make the shot.
I’m currently playing with 11 and 12 year olds and the golfers here are playing so so well. It’s really intimidating, but my dad who is caddying for me said to not worry about how the other golfers play, but I should focus on my own game, and as much as I try and play my best, I should also have fun.
I’m also grateful for my grandmother who walks along with us on the course. She’s an inspiration to me especially since she helps us keep calm on the course and with her experience – she’s played golf for 50 years – she pretty much knows what she’s telling us.”
