 a very good morning and welcome back. This is still one in the morning just in case you have no idea you're in the right place at the right time. But before we get too far let's do some magic. Let's interact on our social media and that includes Facebook, Instagram and on Twitter as well which is at Y2 for 4 underscore channel on the ground but the rest is Y2 for 4 channel. You can find us by the way on tiktok. We've done sometimes we don't have two left feet here right. But you can find me personally at Brian's or corner one on all social media platforms. The hashtag is still on in the morning. Hashtag uncle Sarko. Anyways I had to do it. But now welcome to the studio. Today we have a powerful guest. He's a Treblazer. He's a groundbreaking. When it comes to golf this guy is living it and loving it and not just living it. He's living large when it comes to golf. You might remember him from the Kenya Magical Open. He has so many titles including when it comes to you know winning some of the tournaments especially in that field. You know sometimes we think it's a very sophisticated sport. Is it true? Does it require you to have some level of money? Some level of networks? Or is it just a sport that anyone can venture into and become successful and make money? That's the important part. Now joining us live in the studio to leave golf with us is Mutahi Kibugo. Thanks for having me man. Good morning. By the way, I was so nervous. I didn't know how you'd respond especially the first time when we spoke. I was like Sasa I couldn't pick a stop on Tapiti Aapi by the way. Because you know when you're in the public domain and sometimes when you're trying to reach out to some people you just don't know what they're dealing with. And sometimes you know for a person like you you're a newsmaker you know you're talked about in news outlets in news papers you know and we read about you. Like I literally had to read about you before I talked to you. How does even that make you feel? It surprises me most of the time because I just carry myself as like a Kawaii that guy man. Like I just I just do my thing so when people struggle like to reach out to me or like don't know what to say when they quite reach out to me it shocks me quite frankly because I'm just I'm really open to like everyone at anything. I'm a very social guy so I'm always open to hear what everyone has to say and everything. All right it's your dear approachable so yeah exactly yeah as I'm DM Artil Mutahi underscore Kibugu on Instagram. Now let's get back to you still on that social media handle. If a lot of people who don't know you like how did how how was your making you know how did Mutahi Kibugu the pro golfer come into being? So I started golf when I was about five years old five years old but I started in Kampala Uganda okay because I'm actually I was actually born in Uganda oh you're born in Uganda yeah I was born in Uganda okay then I moved back in Kenya over in 2008 2008 2009 so yeah so I started there and my dad has just made me like take it up ever since until like today right so I've been playing for quite a long time around 17 years yeah and at what age exactly at five five five is too young bro do you want to hold a club no but that's obviously you have like these plastic things so you just hit it around and it's never that's yes I only took it seriously when I was around 12 12 13 that's when I started to like really like get addicted right yeah is this some but I understand your dad is a veteran you know golfer by the way his dad is the brother to former C.S. Mutahi Kagu that is Mr. Dan Kagu if I'm not right yes sir right so coming from that family of people who are exposed you know your your your dad's brother is in the public domain in government your dad is also was also in government before he left yeah and now your dad is a pro golfer all this publicity and everything maybe was it like you guys who are pushed as a family to always you know steer towards you know sophistication I mean just come naturally because we are the guys and you know this is what we do I mean it's a passion or something I mean we're just a very passionate family like all from all my close cousins everyone everyone does something that they are very passionate about and it doesn't matter like what their passion is they're going to they're gonna go for it like some of my cousins are musicians some of them have PhDs in psychology and man it's it's it's insane like everyone just chases their dream right yeah so it's not like it came from a place of pressure this was passion no it's just passion like whatever you picked up when you're young our our parents would just always support us to do what our heart desires so it's just a place of passion there right I was reading somewhere in an interview that your dad and your mom did and they were talking about you know how they would have loved you to also like do golf but still pursue another different course I'm at a different career is there something that you guys still battle till today as you pursue golf sometimes sometimes but not really as much now because I'm actually making a living out of it right yeah I'm actually making sorry about that I'm actually making a living out of it now yeah so and I'm I just went full professional so I'm not really anymore now because I'm actually I actually have a job now like it's now a full time job yeah and you're making it's not just money a lot of money either of you made two million your small brother or you who made two million in one of the former is it second to one second last term is that yeah I think I think my brother made about that much in last years last year yeah last year and you made something around the same as him I feel safe if it's a self space but but what I read is the other one made two million and then I think it's mom who said next time maybe you guys could make even up to one million US dollars yeah 100% yeah on the big tours yeah you make up to like a million in prize money for first place right how does that make you feel like you're young and you're making this big money and there's people there's young people like you out there who look up to you and sometimes even they're not even aware that you know this is a very good space where you know you but though you studied it at some point you mentioned you know you went to South Africa universities should be your girls university in Johannesburg yeah right so you studied it now professional and now you're back you're making money you just money a lot of money yeah no it's it's good enough to survive I'm okay it's good enough to survive it learns let's talk about a little bit of when it comes to now your family setup yeah here you are I don't know how many siblings you are two uh no I actually have a bigger brother and a big sister so four four siblings in total now how does it how does it come and comes to balancing you know your sister your other brother is a star and then you guys have to come on the table and share insights also your small brother is still pursuing golf now yeah how do you guys uh much sibling rivalry at times and it can be really hard because both of you are making money I mean no we just support each other in general like we we give each other our fruits when it's when when they deserve it but also I think the competition in our family really helps I think it really helps it really helps everyone stay on their toes and like nobody should should fall behind right yeah so it's so the competition really helps us right now um yeah I'd like you to talk about some of the recent tournaments especially the magical Kenya Open first of all how did you get to eat and I understand you are the only Kenyan who represented Kenyan in that sport how did you get to eat how was the selection uh criteria that they used and finally landed on you to represent the country yeah so in East Africa we have this tour called the safari tour okay which which gives a great platform for pros in East Africa Kenyan pros to to play because we don't have much competition here so you qualify through that and the top eight Kenyans get into the Kenya Open with two international slots so I was the fifth ranked Kenyan for the year in in the rankings when I qualified and then um yeah Kenyan Open is our final tournament of like of that's the far into a season but it's Kenyan Open is so big it's like uh it's like the finale yeah and it's huge because it's on international level right at what position why you and was it frustrating at first um what position I was like in the final tally the final tally I finished um I think it was tied 60th 65th somewhere there 66th 66th or 66th I think 65th I think 65th all right yeah 65th I mean it wasn't frustrating because um it was my first cut made in such uh in in such a tournament because that was like world status level so I was able to get a world ranking which I I never had right so now that I have the world ranking I can try and make it for Olympics next year right and yeah plenty of other goals but um no I mean I was doing well up until the weekend where I struggled around the weekend yeah because I was the only Kenyan playing the weekend and um yeah I mean sometimes I say I didn't really have pressure but I I didn't have a bit of pressure going into that weekend because I wasn't used to that scenario did you regret maybe you know you expected to perform maybe a little bit you know higher than that no I mean I I tried I tried my best you believe you tried your best yeah I tried my best but you said there was a lot of pressure as well because you know the media was on you I remember that the upward casting at live in I think a lot of mainstream stations and it was until I had to like hey let me I I think I asked if you're doing but you are too you are busy yeah you know how is it mentally dealing with that kind of a pressure you know media is on you people are writing newspapers are writing and it's broadcasted live on tv do you understand I kind of liked it you liked it yeah I loved it by the I think it um it just inspired me to just keep keep playing and just like keep going and also like the extra pressure it just it helps me almost play better by the like I know I didn't do that well on the weekend but I would have done really worse without pressure so it just kept me like in the moment right now also you know performance is very important and I'm sure it's gauged so you can you can try you can exactly you know paint for us a picture how they gauge performance especially when it comes to such tournaments like what exactly happens in the whole sport in the whole sport right so so professional golf is is four days of four days it is four days but you start at a field of 156 to anything over that until so it starts Thursday Friday where the whole field plays and after that is there's a cut if you are not in the top 60 players and ties going into the weekend you're cut out from the tournament and that means you'll never participate for the weekend yeah for that day yeah for the saturday and sunday all right and you don't get paid also right only when you make the cut into the weekend the top 60 and ties are the ones who get a check from the from the prize fund right yeah so that's how it so that's how it works right so it's pretty brutal it's not like every other sport where you have a certain contract where you get like a monthly salary or weekly salary like football like if you if you don't perform week in week out you can go two to three months without making a check what yeah but then you're still interacting with these you know uh good people of golf yeah you see you see them every weekend all right i mean every like tournament right it's just that if you don't perform on the weekends they're staying and playing right and you you have to fly home because you have to go to your next destination that's really sad though yeah it is it's the it's the brutal side of golf not a lot of right not a lot of people see so yeah but it's also associated with you know like i said in the intro people who have you know i don't know if it's a myth but you'll try to demystify it is it golf is always especially what we've read and you know watched it's always associated with people who have a certain amount of money you know they have a certain levels of networks as well as wealth which is an asset as well so is it true though that for you to you know reach some certain ranks you must be a passer for certain caliber to even play as well even including these golf clubs um i would say i would say um a lot of a lot of guys play golf for leisure all right so and if you do want to start then the equipment is is is expensive all right yeah like and you'll talk about that because we have we have one in studio here as well yeah i'll talk about that maybe if you want to start it is it is quite expensive to start but it's becoming more accessible for people who want to start like um there's this public golf course it's called golf park congress course right so if you want to if you are a beginner that's a great place to start right because it's it's not expensive and uh they're open to anyone who wants to come play right so yeah that's a great place to start to go so it is becoming more accessible right so hopefully in future they can try and do something about it build more introduce more schools into into golf just going to hit in open fields there are plenty of golf clubs that are not used that can be donated and everything so those are ideas i have that i really want to spread like you feel like when you get a platform but i feel like you really have a platform to share them anyways yeah it's just a matter of growing it and uh yeah just trying to inspire and show guys that it's like that stereotype that's we can we can break it down still on that do you feel like uh let me use a crazy or a good example uh a person from a place like huisero you know in the interiors of western yeah would you recommend them to start playing golf because in such a place they're still struggling first of all to even read about electricity and experience you know uh good education and and and trying to you know recover from the shackles of traditional life would you recommend like you know they should also pursue golf um yeah hundred percent yeah hundred percent there's a golf course in every county in in uh in kenya right in every county in kenya and there's always a local professional right at these golf courses right and these these professionals are trained to get people into the game right and uh no you don't have to start from being a player standpoint but you can also get um just introduced to the game right there's always there's always people that will help you like into the game you might not necessarily pay at the start you don't have to pay but um they are professional golf most golf clubs do charge most golf golf most golf clubs do charge right most golf clubs do charge which is which is a problem which is why it's not quite accessible right but um yeah but that idea going back to like the schools and everything and just helping donate and stuff and like me like I actually want to start going to different places in like in kenya doing outreach now yeah doing outreach and just try get uh get people to do that because one of my friends from Uganda his name is Sali um he he does like the same thing and he's really inspiring like youth in Uganda to to start yeah so so I try to want to try to do the same thing all right is there maybe a way the government has come in especially when it comes to now uh doing outreach in our country that you talk about and say yes there's a possibility or it's already then maybe a lot of people are not aware um it's already there the junior golf foundation is trying to do that so yeah so they're starting a bit slowly but I think it will pick up and they'll they'll be good so hopefully it grows and that initiative reaches everyone right yeah now before we get to the kids here um I would also like you to uh just paint for us a picture like what are some of the stages for a starter if you have to now like go and roll to a club how do you go about it from day one and rolling maybe training yeah now you start playing like uh take us through that uh chain or that cycle so you just you just get the basics like you start slowly try to get contact with the ball yeah and uh try find some technique doesn't technique is very important yeah it doesn't matter but at the start you know you don't have to be thoroughly on technique you just have to hit the ball okay yeah so once you do that then now you start playing actually going on the golf course all right because where we practice is called range all right so you actually go on the golf course and then how you build in the game is you get a handicap a handicap what does that mean a handicap now is the level of golf that you're at it is it's basically your level so for men sorry I haven't had one in a while because I have great but I think women starts at 52 and it actually goes down so the lower your handicap the better you are 52 going down so if you are 21 handicap you're better than a 32 handicap the lesser yeah and men starts at 28 so you should be dropping or it should be dropping yeah all right so at what point does someone become you now I'm using you as the SI unit here probably after they get that all when they minus the handicap all the way from 28 to 0 okay and then when they're able to maintain the zero handicap and play at a certain level often like a golf course is what's called a par 72 right so all the holes add up to 72 I'm stuck at the par what does par mean now for somebody who doesn't understand because I understand there's a lot of jargon in there you mentioned a caddy yeah right so a par a par is the score you're supposed to make on every hole so they short long holes and there's also holes that are medium right so the par is the is the number so for short holes it's called a par three par three that's a short hole that's a short hole I was writing but I'm trying to combine this yeah yeah but that and a lot and a lot do you think a car I'm serious like that yeah so the caddy is the one who helps you and carry your bike so do we have it here do we have like a car here no no no it's a it's a it's a it's a person my my caddy I have caddies like everywhere so some guys in South Africa who are high when I'm there like they help me and some guys in Kenya and the golf courses yeah so they just carry your bike and they supply you some information like on the go look at me now look at bro silence your parts but now we have a kit here we have a kit in the studio and I like you to break it down to us what is in here what isn't here yeah what is here so everything so everything is here so this is the club I use the most it's called a club it's called yeah but the club is called a pata a pata yeah and it has a number or something it has a it has a number there so it's just so this is what you use when you get on what's called the grease but it's very heavy it's very heavy yeah and it's number five yeah you can see it's number five yeah well yeah why hot then you have all these other clubs which are used for different places so when you are so they they both play a different role yeah they all play they all play different roles in totally mentioned they are 14 yeah number so how do you start now from the first club till if you can number 14 uh so you start from what's called in golf is called the t-box the t-ground t-ground yeah so from the t-ground this is where you hit the ball going to next what's called the fairway fair the fairway okay continue and from the fairway you go to the green so this is where you use this thing to part or parting yeah so like mini golf so like in mini golf you use the pata so like so yeah so that's those are the stages so in between you'll you can use any of these clubs right like to do to hit how far you want or the certain shot you want to play all right I don't know if you be able to stand and just pick one and demonstrate because I understand there's also there's also a certain posture yeah at some point I tried it and I couldn't hack it bro what is going on I tried so there's a way you hold it so you can pick one of them that you're comfortable you can do that yeah sure um I'll just pick a small one right let me not I don't want to be too aggressive right so what do you have you have the the ball the ball yeah I have a ball yeah okay let me not hit it I might uh I might break something in the this is done this is done yeah so so the ball is here so the first thing I'll do is I'll put the club like right behind it is it usually direct on on the ground or there's like a support material or something yeah you can you can put it on the T it's called a T yeah it's called a T the support I can also show you what that is yeah okay so so this is a T right so you just put it in the ground and then the ball on top okay yeah so you'll just hold the club you can hold the club in many ways there's what's called baseball where you hold 10 fingers right there's interlock well interlock like this right or I will just hold it any other way you know when you're starting you don't really have to right do anything yeah so just stand most people stand very wide like you're hitting there's also posture and position of the legs yeah okay you need to have to be bent your your butt tilted over right and uh yeah from this position that's and that's how you think is it kicking scoping or just demolishing it's just hitting hitting yeah you know bigger your kit about but then my question again is uh usually when you guys hit the ball uh to some place it goes and stays there yeah and then that's when the card comes in to pick the ball um so the caddy of the caddy assist in carrying for you yes but also he's he helps you make certain decisions on on what to do yeah okay because he also has a lot of knowledge on golf all right so he's actually very essential to any player he's like an assistant they come a referee says referee or lineman yeah basically basically he just keeps you in check and all right also the rules in check yeah all right but you even have an umbrella as well because yeah it's like you're all all all around when it comes to uh golf uh which one have we used now club number that was a club number that was uh called uh a p it's called a pitching watch uh which other one as well there's a four there's a six there's a five all right then there's the one which is the driver this is one a lot of people know me for all right i tend to hit the ball are you able to show it to us as well yeah still it's a little bit longer yeah it's a little bit longer so now this is what guys mainly use like off the tee right so the so they mainly use this off the tee yeah does the ball size also in our vari when it comes to this one as compared to the number the the other one that we use i know you play the same ball same same ball yeah you play the same ball because it's uh all right but this one just goes farther if you want to hit it far then use the big one all right yeah so then also i'm confused at what point do you keep on changing now from the small one to a big one during the tournament that's that's now where distances come in all right yeah so like we play in yards oh yeah yeah so if i have 220 yards to the flag right i'll use one of the longer ones right if i have 80 yards i'll use one of the short ones right yeah all right let's move away from that uh the last time we spoke you told me you know in in was it a zombie or a zimbabwe uh i was in zimbabwe yeah right uh you hadn't gone there for a tournament as well please talk about it and how was your performance uh how was the whole experience and and when did you come back in the country i came back um last week last week monday yeah around last week monday uh my my experience was good so so i just qualified to play on this international tour called sunshine tour right so uh so yeah so it's it's it's been it's been good so far so i just made my my second cut on it on this international level right and i finished type 33 going to the last day i was tied 18th i think when i just struggled but the thing is golf was so bunched up so your your position can change at any time if you let your concentration go right yeah so i finished type 33rd right and uh yeah it wasn't a bad performance yeah and you got paid for it you got paid for it as well yeah i got paid for it yeah oh my goodness you know when you pass that to bro pass that to president we tell the center i'm also trying to find your recent one i think i had comforted somewhere let me see if yes this one is the zimbabwe open which you finished you're calling it t 33 yeah all right and and then also you are in the players championship south africa at dine fenfan golf club yeah you finished at the t 48th position as well yeah talk about that yeah south african one yeah and uh south african was really nice because um uh because i'm now starting to break out there in south africa and there's plenty of opportunities that are spreading into europe right and uh going into asia right so yeah i'm starting to do really do well then getting starts in uh in other countries as well right yeah so you get to just travel alone now because you're above you're above 22 anyways yeah but uh i read in an article that i read uh it is a little bit difficult for your brother to just let you go all the time so it's like we either go together or you stay at home or let's go as a family now but at this point it's now you so you're traveling all alone and i remember at some point we had a conversation it was like i was asking you how does it feel to just always change airports from this airport to this other and you're like you know sometimes it's boring but you love it ten years yeah right you know the good thing is when i was when i was on national team like when i was an amateur right when i used to play for the kenya team um i used to travel with like 10 guys or like for your crew now yeah for for us players now who are representing kenya okay so i and i started when i was very young when i was like 13 i entered like the national team the senior team all right so so they always used to bully me man and also is used always but bullying me like from a fancy they're just trying to make me grow up yeah so tease you yeah tease me so it was it was nice and uh the fact that we went all different places it got me used to traveling at a very young age so by the time i reached 17 16 i was ready used to going places alone right yeah all right uh we only have four minutes and then we exit but uh before we get to the fun part we are going to play uh different uh a little bit of a game and i hope you'll hack it because i'll put you on the spot uh also when it comes now to uh especially your background now because you come from a very prominent family and you mentioned some of your relatives and musicians the rest of kenaka who ish kenaka we are my guy uh do you feel like maybe it if people are to judge you maybe let's say 30 years later maybe you're retiring and people are to get of course social media people will always give an opinion and somebody says maybe they think you come from a place of privilege yeah would you take it or would you you know feel some tap away about it how would that make you feel if somebody say ah it's because it comes from a place of privilege and of course i'm sure you've heard people say that yeah 100% how does it make you feel do you just take it like it's normal or sometimes you just want to prove to people that you guys it's not what you think i work hard for this i have school the fuck you've studied golf professionally yeah no 100% right no i mean um i've like um i'm very blessed to have had to have had the opportunity to start golf and everything so so like i think god every day for that man and uh so no i i don't feel a type of way but the certain stories the certain people have grown up with who who have taught me how life is at a very young age so a lot of people see me and they don't don't really know who i am or where i've come from or what i've what i've had to do all the situations have been in to be like where i am now right because a lot of people see the glory a lot you know yeah they don't they don't see they don't see the story you know yeah they don't see they don't see you coming home nine at night right just and you left home five a.m. and the training as well because it's blonde sweat and tears for you to become in fact in this book called the leader who had no title uh robin shama talks about the 10 000 hour rule where it means for you to be a master or to master and art you must have learnt it for over five years close to 10 000 actually 10 years that's close to 10 000 hours yeah 100 right yeah 100 man golf is like any sport nowadays but you have to be an athlete and um i don't only look at my role models at golfers i look at i try to pick things from athletes from every other sport like um like i see i see college in jerry once in a while and golf course because he recently started it and uh he really likes it so your friends with the mania as well you've met him no i've never i've never met a mania but i would love to meet him and it's a big inspiration for for me and plenty other guys i would just love to so i just love to pick different athletes brains and just see like their journey and and what they did to overcome diversity right yeah so yeah so that's one thing for me you must be really a ground breaker actually to break that because it's a very crazy barrier you know diversity yeah yeah no it is a hundred percent yeah just um i just don't look at golf as as golf i think of it as a another sport right so so yeah for me i just i just pick up different things from everywhere because i think it can help me in my own sport all right uh who are some of the let's say uh role models as well as uh the ones who've interacted with a lot who are so high on the rug said when you met them you are so humble and as much as you know you also got in the space but you are humbled when you met them um so on international level i've met a lot of professional golfers that uh that uh i really liked and that were a big inspiration to me when i was young i used to look at uh guys like greg snow uh these are tiger woods i haven't met tiger woods but i'm going to very soon you'll meet him yeah but i love local guys i took in sport in still like this mustn't these are greg snow um people who have become my rivals today like idols came to rival so yeah so from our country is it from yeah yeah from from our country okay yeah from kenya all right and uh yeah other like athletes man who who have met like connoisseur man like that was a big inspiration for me it's all you did with him met him yeah i haven't met kipchogi also but uh it's also a big inspiration also a big inspiration for me and uh i listen to a lot of his his interviews and quotes and uh man the guys too wise bro all right so yeah it's definitely someone i would i would love to meet okay very soon hashtag got on got so here's where we play a game and it gets it gets easier now so which one do you choose uh i'd like you to choose because we're out of time anyways would you never have i ever or kill mary slap date mary slap friend zone which one would you want to go to never have i ever or kill mary slap date uh which i'll do very simple question um i'll do uh never have i ever never have i ever i was running from relationship once but i see i see what you're done i see what you're done so never have i ever smoked weird uh i've never i've never you've ever no i've i've never you never spoke to it okay okay never have i ever sneaked out of home yeah i have a few times a few times where are you going to who are you going to meet but anyways the third one as we as we finish never have i ever lied to my mom about a situation that i have going on and i think everyone has done that everyone does that yeah i think everyone has done that but why though and then the fourth one never have i ever affect a situation to escape from punishment yeah i have yeah big time yeah big time big time we're not going to go into detail but okay uh the fifth one never have i ever stolen money from dad or mom and they were never aware of it till today they are not even aware i took this big amount of money that one used to be kawaii now whatever you only come okay come on down and then the second last one never have i ever drunk the harshest the harshest brand of vodka yeah yeah yeah i have you have and then the last one says that we exit never have i ever bullied someone no that one that's a rabbit but you're bullied i mean i was bullied because i was just a small kid like i only just grew up the other day like this beard i don't even know where it came from yeah i've always been it's blessing you know i'll say my beard gang you really have to have have some good hormones to get through that yeah but uh we have come to the end of the interview but uh i also like you to uh share or what are some of the tournaments that people should expect of course you're a newsmaker you're googleable meaning someone you can google and you just read about them but what are some of the tournaments that people can expect and what are some of the good things you have is too for me i'd say launch a podcast so that we come in especially me nionge a posana since i'm a toka yeah yeah so that's your cover okay i'm heading to germany on the 28th for the dp world tour championship there it's called the posh open so i'll be heading there and then i'll be coming back to kenya playing some few tournaments here and then heading down south so yeah exciting few months and uh i'll keep you guys updated on that all right thank you so much but i remember to say hi to kakush mom be a to nam takah a boy to fufu ah let's see what uh that's a must uh oh let's i'm only under contragan uh u k oh he's in the u k yeah he just disappeared of social media yeah just recording man this is grinding miss you guys let him cook let him cook thank you so much uh first of all we appreciate your time and i think it was a blessing you know i think we interacted at some place years back but look the universe it's just interesting all comes out you know thank you so much for dressing our studios and for your time and for your insights and we wish you the very best of luck even as you represent and put kenya on the map so thanks man yeah thank you we have been speaking to mutsahi kabugu now you know him and anything else he has to offer especially for the country definitely you are in the know and at this point here's where we ended but you can always interact with us on our socials facebook instagram twitter at one two four four underscore channel every on the ground mines is abranza kawano one and we wish you a fantastic tuesday see you next time right here