Iona Stephen joined Justin Harding on Muthaiga Golf Club's 13th and 14th holes to learn all about the host venue of this week's Magical Kenya Open presented by absa.
Harding may have won this title over at Karen Country Club in 2021 but he has played Muthaiga four times at this event and the South African certainly knows a thing or two about conditions on his home contintent.
With former Ladies European Tour player and broadcaster Iona on the bag, the two-time DP World Tour winner gave us a player's insight into all things Muthaiga.
Course
The wind is the tricky part at this place, it just swirls all over the place and when it gets a bit warm the ball travels and trying to guess how far it goes is a tricky one. This place is tricky, I think it plays very different when it plays softer like it is now at the moment. I find you're able to place your way around a bit better than in the past. Sometimes if it's super firm the fairways are super tough to get a hold of. It's not really ever been the type of golf course where the guys have gone incredibly low, certainly not from a final scoring point of view. It's one of those where you plot it around and try and see if you can shoot 68 or thereabouts and add them up at the end of the week.
Greens
It sounds kind of silly but just aim for the middle of them. A lot of it is if you come in from the fairway you fall into the false pretence of being able to go for the flag but esentially if you just hit it to the middle, you're going to have 15-20 feet more or less most of the day. if you get lucky and you roll a couple of them in then you can build some momentum but it's one of those types of golf courses where it can lure you in to being a little bit too aggressive. It all comes down to pace on the greens... more often than not it's how quickly you want the ball to roll into the hole. There will be a hint of grain, especially as they're not going to cut them down super tight.
Grass
Kikuyu is different to certainly what the Europeans are used to. In the fairways it tends to sit prettty high up where a lot of the guys struggle to get a pure strike in the sense that they just hit it a little high off the face. It does promote a little more of a clippy type nature. Where they really battle is in and around the greens, just judging it with regards to the speed at which you actually have to hit it. I feel like you have to be a lot more aggressive out of it and maybe that's something that a lot of the guys aren't too comfortable with. It's one of those very interesting grasses where you feel like you could make a mess from what would be a really good lie.
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