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Kenya open huge lead at African golf tourney
Kenya's John Lejirmah fires to the 17th green during the third round of the five-nations Africa Golf Confederation Region 4 golf Championship at the par-71 Addis Ababa Golf Club course on June 09, 2023.
What you need to know:
- The team’s leading player Michael Karanga produced two under par 69 while John Lejirmah fired one under par 70, with team captain Dennis Maara posting one over par 72 for a total of 215 best of three, to bring the team total so far to 15 over par 654 against Uganda’s 30 over par 669
- Karanga eagled the par five-first, birdied the second and third, and despite dropping two shots at the fourth and ninth, he parred the rest of the holes at the back nine
- The team Captain Maara birdied the first, dropped shots on the second, and fourth, recovered one at the fifth, but picked up a double at the eighth after going out of bounds
In Addis Ababa
Defending champions Kenya increased their lead by 11 shots against arch-rivals Uganda going into Saturday’s final round of the five-nations Africa Golf Confederation Region 4 golf Championship at the par 71 Addis Ababa Golf Club course.
The team’s leading player Michael Karanga produced two under par 69 while John Lejirmah fired one under par 70, with captain Dennis Maara posting one over par 72 for a total of 215 best of three, to bring the team total so far to 15 over par 654 against Uganda’s 30 over par 669.
Karanga eagled the par five-first, birdied the second and third, and despite dropping two shots at the fourth and ninth, he parred the rest of the holes at the back nine. On the other hand, the top golfer in 2022 John Lejirmah doubled-bogeyed the third and 15th, but birdied the fifth, ninth, picked up one more at the 13th then birdied the last three holes (16th, 17th and 18th) for the day’s one under par 70.
“We really wanted to increased the margin on our rivals Uganda after their day one seven shots lead. We therefore made sure that we widen the gap so that we approach the final round with confidence. The grind is definitely on tomorrow as we will go for more birdies to make sure that we retain the title with more than comfortable lead,’’ said Lejirmah.
The team Captain Maara birdied the first, dropped shots on the second, and fourth, recovered one at the fifth, but picked up a double at the eighth after going out of bounds. He managed two birdies at the 11th and 13th, bogeyed the 15th but picked up three straight pars to finish on one over par 72.
For the Ugandans, Godfrey Nsubuga started awfully, picking up an eighth in the par five-first hole, doubled the second and dropped one more shot at the eighth. He however managed to roll in five pars and a birdie for four over par 75. Also posting 75 was the team’s other top player Ibrahim Bagalana while Joseph Akena was the best in the team with one over par 72.
Closing the third day with a team total of 57 over par was Rwanda while Ethiopia was still in fourth place with an aggregate of 59 over par. Tanzania remained in fifth place on 83 over par total.
The fourth and final round gets underway on Saturday 8am followed by the flag-lowering and prize-giving ceremony later on in the evening.
