Europeantour.com takes a statistical look into the history of the Barclays Kenya Open, which is this year celebrating its 43rd edition.
• This year will be the 20th time the Barclays Kenya Open has been played on the Challenge Tour Schedule. Only the Rolex Trophy, played 22 times, has featured more often on the Schedule. The event was first played on the Challenge Tour in 1990, when it was won by Irishman Christy O’Connor Jnr.
• The event was first played in 1967, when it was held at Muthaiga Golf Club and won by Gary Wolstenholme, now a Senior Tour Member. A rich history of former winners includes three Major Champions: Spain’s Seve Ballesteros (1978), Wales’ Ian Woosnam (1986) and South African Trevor Immelman (2000). Ten Ryder Cup players have also won the event – they are: Maurice Bembridge (winner from 1968-69, and 1979); Seve Ballesteros (1978); Brian Waites (1980); Brian Barnes (1981); Eamonn Darcy (1982); Ken Brown (1983); José Maria Cañizares; Ian Woosnam (1986); Christy O’Connor Jnr (1990); and Edoardo Molinari (2007).
• When Robert Dinwiddie won last year’s event en route to finishing in eighth place in the final Challenge Tour Rankings, he became the tenth winner of the event since 1998 to graduate to The European Tour at the end of the season. The other nine are: Ricardo Gonzalez (1998); Maarten Lafeber (1999); Trevor Immelman (2000); Lee James (2002); Marc Cayeux (2004); Daniel Vancsik (20050; Johan Axgren (2006); Edoardo Moliani (2007); and Gary Boyd (2009).
• Joaquin Estevez, who won the season-opening Abierto Internacional Cope Antioquia will be bidding to become the first player to win back-to-back events since Iain Pyman achieved the feat in 2007. He is also hoping to become the fourth Argentine winner of the event, after Jorge Berendt (1997), Ricardo Gonzalez (1998) and Daniel Vancsik (2005).
