Kenya’s Dismas Indiza, shot an impressive score of 4-under par, 68 to storm to the top of the leaderboard at the Lake Victoria Golf Resort Open, the fifth event on the 2019/20 Safari tour calendar. Indiza leads an all Kenyan top three that includes Vet Lab’s Edwin Mudanyi and Windsor Golf Club’s Sujan Shah.
The Johnnie Walker sponsored Indiza marked his return to the Lake Victoria Golf Resort course where he set the course record during the 2019 Uganda Open, with an equally impressive round, though a few strokes shy of his round three Uganda Open showing.
The Mumias based golfer kept his rich vein form from last week’s Entebbe going with three birdies on the front nine, however an equal number of bogeys saw him hold a turning score of par. It was at the back nine that he turned on the style, shooting a blemish free nine holes, including four birdies to take his round’s score to 4-under par, 68, one shot ahead of fellow Kenyan Edwin Mudanyi.
Mudanyi’s round could have almost earned him first spot, had it not been for a bogey at the par-4 16th, his only dropped shot of the round. Before this Mudanyi had shot birdies on the sixth, eighth and thirteenth, while holding par through the other holes, a further birdie on the 18th saw him card a round score of 3-under par, 69 to sit a shot a head of Sujan Shah.
Like Mudanyi, Sujan was on course for a table topping round, having not dropped a shot in sixteen holes, before a double bogey at the par-5 17th, cancelled out two of his four birdies in the round, he would hold on for a 2-under par score, just enough to finish above the trio of Henry Lujja (Uganda), Abbey Bagalana (Uganda) and Golf Park’s David Wakhu, who finished the round with identical scores of 1-under par, 71.
Professional Golfers of Kenya captain, CJ Wangai is among five players who finished with a score of par, in seventh. The others are Ronnie Bukenya (Uganda), Ronald Rugumayo (Uganda), Alfred Nandwa and Eric Ooko of Kenya. It was a challenging day for the 2018-19 Safari tour winner Greg Snow who shot a round of 2-over par, 74, to place him T17, alongside the 2019 Entebbe Open winner, Justus Madoya.
Round two action tees off at 8:00 AM, with the field of 54 players all jostling to make the CUT to play in the third and fourth rounds.