HOW IT ALL STARTED AND WHAT WE HAVE

Nyali Limited was the Company which owned the land to the immediate north of the creek separating Mombasa island from the North Coast. It was the Company which built the old Nyali pontoon bridge for the purpose of transporting its sisal to Kilindini Harbour for shipment overseas.

The sisal market declined worldwide in the 1940’s and the Nyali Limited decided to convert their estate into residential plots of two acres each for sale to the public.

Eventually, there were a large number of people resident on the estate and many of them were golfers who were tired of making the journey across the bridge and the island to play golf at Mombasa Golf Club. So, Hugh Greenwood, the Managing Director of Nyali Ltd, who was a keen Golfer himself, decided that a nine holes course should be laid out at Nyali. This would be an incentive to would be purchasers of plots on the estate. The Nyali Beach Hotel had been built and was opened in 1946. Thus there were others who could be interested in playing golf at Nyali. Work started on the course in 1956 and by late 1958 the nine holes were ready for play although the fairways improved with the continuous removal of coral and the spreading of soil, preferred lies were the order of the day.

The course architect was Monty Lowry, a keen golfer from Muthaiga Golf Club in Nairobi. Rosetta Lowry was the first Lady Golfer in Kenya to play off scratch. Monty was assisted in laying out the Course by Bill Bradshaw, the Estate Engineer, Ted Strang, a South African who knew a great deal about Golf Courses and by very many would be golfers.