Thika Golf Club’s Simon Ngige remained in firm control at the Great Rift Valley Golf Resort’s Green Park course going into Wednesday’s final round of the Safari Pro Golf Tour sixth leg.
During Tuesday’s third round, Ngige fired four under par 67, so far the lowest under par round, to head the field with an impressive four under par total of 209 and a six shots gap from long hitting and Johnnie Walker sponsored Dismas Indiza from Mumias Golf Club.
Ngige dropped a shot at the third hole, but made birdies on the fifth and sixth and at the ninth. He then bogeyed the 13th but managed to compensate with birdies on the 15th, 16th at the 18th hole. Indiza on the other hand, made four birdies at the front nine’s fourth, fifth, sixth and nine with a bogey at the eighth.
He however ruined his chances of going right to the top of the leaderboard after dropping two shots at the 11th and 14th for one under par 70 and a total score of two over par 215, just a shot better than Rwanda’s Alloys Nsabimana who shot level par 71 for a total of 216.
The youngster Nsabimana picked up two birdies at sixth and eighth but dropped a shot soon after at the ninth. He recovered one at the 14th though double bogey seven at the 17th hole denied him an under par finish. Sigona’s John Wangai, who started the day tied in second place with Nigeria’s Andrew Odoh, carded four over par 75 to drop to fifth place on 219 while Odoh was further behind on 219 after a disastrous 77.
Home amateur Simon Njogu had a good day, firing two under par 69 to move from eighth to fourth place on 217, five shots better than the other surviving amateur Daniel Nduva who carded one over par 72 for 222 in 10th place. Njogu picked up nine pars at the opening nine, then birdied the 10th, 11th, and 14th only to drop a shot at the 16th.
The final chase for a share of the Sh1 million prize fund gets underway on Wednesday 9am.
The leaderboard:
Simon Njogu 72, 70, 67= 209
Dismas Indiza 73, 72, 70= 215
Alloys Nsabimana (Rw) 73, 72, 71= 216
Simon Njogu (A) 74, 74, 69= 217
John Wangai 71, 72, 75= 218
Alfred Nandwa 75, 70, 74- 219
Andrew Odoh (Nig) 72, 71, 77= 220
Nelson Mudanyi 76, 70, 75= 221
Tony Omuli 75, 75, 72= 222
Daniel Nduva (A) 79, 71, 72= 222.