Nandi Bears’ captain Isaac Kuto has lauded the move by the Kenya Golf Union (KGU) to support young upcoming players through the Junior Golf Foundation.

Kuto, who is set to represent the country at the International Pairs finals in Portugal next year, said that juniors are the pillars of any sport.

Speaking during the Nandi Open Shield, the Kenya Amateur Golf championships series at his home club, Kuto said: “What KGU have done to improve junior golf is commendable. They have gone big on junior golf development."

Kuto said they are also going big on bringing up young players, who train on a daily basis at Nandi Bears.

“We now have junior tournaments across the country where kids as young as ten are involved. We also have many juniors at our club,” said Kuto.

KGU chairman Philip Ocholla said they are organising more and more junior tournaments to give the players a chance to hone their skills.

“Junior golf events are happening almost every weekend as we seek to improve their career development,” said Ocholla.

Meanwhile, Ocholla said they are organising training for coaches as they seek to improve the game at all levels.

“We had Africa high-performance training by South Africans who trained six of our coaches. We also involved 12 players (boys and girls),” added Ocholla.

He confirmed that two junior players will be involved at next year's Magical Kenya Open.

“We normally have six amateur players. We shall also field two juniors. We also gave the juniors a chance to represent the country at the Africa Region Four championships,” added Ocholla.