Okello promising happy memories to Kenyan fans

Arguably Kenya’s most accomplished golfer at the Kenya Open, Jacob Okello, who is part of the Kenyan contingent to the Open and Savannah Classic, is promising to change the narrative of Kenyans faltering at the European Tour stage. 

Okello last featured in the Open in 2018 when it was running as a Challenge Tour event. He is one of the lucky golfers who landed a slot in this year's Open and subsequently the Savannah Classic after Kenya Open Golf Limited (KOGL) increased the slots from the initial eight. 

"We have two events to play this time and there will be a lot of happy memories for our fans, the media and the country as a whole, that I promise. We want to change this narrative and it takes one person to do that then the rest will follow suit. I have a good feeling about these events and the team's preparations," Okello said. 

As part of preparations for the Open and Classic, Okello is playing at Sigona and Vetlab as he says the greens are quick and the latter course gives him a similar distance to that of Karen. While acknowledging that Kenyans will be expecting good results from him, he maintained that sticking to a routine will help him play good rounds of golf. 

"The idea is to play on courses whose layout is similar to that of Karen and those two are doing it for me. Playing on different courses also gives me a perspective on how to handle different holes. I know the greens at Karen will be harder and they have also top dressed the aprons with sand which is new for us. However, I intend to play one shot at a time. We will operate from a bubble setting and are playing behind closed doors which will also help to concentrate on the competition," Okello added. 

Okello believes that he still has it within himself to repeat the feat of 1998 when he came close to winning the Kenya Open. He lost in a playoff. 

"The game has changed since 1998. The equipment has changed, the shafts are better and the balls are flying further. I still hit the same distance I used to back then when I was much younger because of these improvements," he expressed. 

In 1998, the then 30-year-old Okello had to fight Argentina’s Ricardo Gonzalez in a playoff. He was leading with four holes of the tournament left to play at Muthaiga. 

However, a double-bogey at the par-three 15th derailed his challenge, though, with an errant tee shot finding the thick rough, leaving Okello relieved to be walking away with only a five on his card to finish tied on 12 under par. 

A bogey at the par-three 13th proved to be his undoing in the playoff as he lost what would have been the most famous of wins since the Open's inception. His second-place finish granted him a full season on the Challenge Tour the following year but after also competing on the Sunshine Tour, his runner-up finish remains the best of his career and Kenya's best at the Open. He has finished in the top five twice, in 2006 and 2007.