Simon Ngige fired an impressive score of 3-under par, with a one-under-par, 71 in round two, to take a five-shot lead in the second round of the third leg of Safari Tour golf series on par 72 Royal golf club.
The Thika Sports club player registered a gross score of 4-under par, 140, heading into the penultimate round of the tournament tomorrow.
The joint overnight leader started his round with a bogey on the par-4 first, before settling with back to back pars then recovering with a birdie on the fourth. A further birdie on the par-5 seventh saw him card a turning score of one under par, 35. Ngige staggered through the back nine, hitting bogeys on the 11th, 14th and 18th coupled by birdies on the 13th, 15th and 16th, while holding par through the rest of the holes, to finish the round on 1-under par, 71.
The trio of Golf Park’s David Wakhu, Royal Golf Club’s Erick Ooko and Sigona Golf Club’s Mohit Mediratta, sit five shots behind Ngige after playing rounds of 1-over par, 4-over par and 3-over par respectively.
The round, however, belonged to Uganda’s Brian Toolit, who played a tournament-leading score of 4-under par, 68. The Jinja Golf Club professional hit a total of five birdies and one eagle but was hard done by three bogeys on the sixth, twelfth and sixteenth. Despite his efforts, Brian failed to make the CUT, which was set at 7 over par, having played an opening round of 12 over par, to take his gross score at 8 over par.
A total of 21 players, including one amateur, made the cut to play in the third and fourth rounds, including Dismas Indiza (+3), Rizwan Charania (+5) and amateur Daniel Nduva (+2)
Round three action tees off at 8:30 AM, with the professionals aiming for a stake of the KES. 1 Million prize.