Wafula opens one shot lead at Kiambu Open
Naomi Wafula of Kenya follows the progress of her tee during the third round of the Magical Kenya Ladies Open Golf Tournament at Vipingo Ridge in Kilifi County on February 04, 2023.
What you need to know:
- Wafula, one of the pioneer golfers from the Rose Naliaka Golf Academy, made a slow start, dropping two shots at the first and fifth holes though she quickly recovered the with two back-to-back birdies at the sixth and seventh only to bogey the last two holes of the front nine
- It was a dramatic finish of the second round as day one leader Michael Karanga shot his worse round in the Kenya Amateur Golf Championship (KAGC) series this season
- Nsubuga birdied two holes and dropped two shots at the front nine, then picked nine pars at the back nine for his back-to-back level par 72 and a total of 144
Vipingo Ridge’s Naomi Wafula shot one under par to make her way to the top of the leaderboard going into Sunday’s final round of NCBA Bank-sponsored Kiambu Open at the par 72 Kiambu Golf Club course.
It was a dramatic finish of the second round as day 1 leader Michael Karanga shot his worse round in the Kenya Amateur Golf Championship (KAGC) series this season.
But back to the former Ladies amateur champion Wafula, one of the pioneer golfers from the Rose Naliaka Golf Academy, made a slow start, dropping two shots at the first and fifth holes though she quickly recovered the with two back-to-back birdies at the sixth and seventh only to bogey the last two holes of the front nine.
She however came back strongly at the back nine where she made birdies at the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th, dropped two shots thereafter at the 15th and 16th but closed the day with a birdie at the 18th for one under par 71 and a two rounds total of one under 143, just a shot better than Uganda champion Godfrey Nsubuga.
Nsubuga birdied two holes and dropped two shots at the front nine, then picked nine pars at the back nine for his back-to-back level par 72 and a total of 144.
It was definitely a bad day for the course record holder Karanga who bogeyed the par five-second, then picked up a double at the third hole and another bogey at the fifth.
He picked the day’s only birdie at the 12th after dropping a shot at the 11th which he later recovered with a birdie at the 12th which was to be the only birdie of the day, as he parred five and dropped one shot at the 16th for a poor 78.
“This is my worst score this season as I missed eight fairways which is very unusual at Kiambu for me, but that is golf for you. But by all means I'm not out yet. Three shots is not much to recover,’’ said Karanga who will definitely be in the team of Naomi Wafula and the Ugandan Nsubuga in the final round on Sunday.
Meanwhile, two shots behind Karanga was another Kiambu player Steve Kiaro who shot two under par for four over par 148. Vet Lab’s Ebill Omollo was on his own in fifth place with six over par 150 while Vipingo Ridge’s Adel Balala fired one over par 73 to lead a group of four on seven over par 151 including the second lady golfer Joyce Wanjiru who shot 77 in the second round.
A total of 35 players on 21 over made it to the final round where they will now be battling it out for a share of the Sh520,000 purse courtesy of NCBA Bank and GA Insurance.
