By DANIELLA APIYO AND AMANDA DAMARIS

Ashun Wu from the People’s Republic of China produced a final round six under par 65 despite bogeying the second hole, to become the first Chinese to win the 53 year old Magical Kenya Open title at the par 71 Muthaiga Golf Club course on Sunday March 6, 2022.

The 37 year old Wu who was making his debut in the Open which was staged for the third time as part of the DP World Tour series, maintained his cool despite bogeying in the early stage of the final.

He however recovered the shot quickly at the par five-fourth hole and added three more birdies at the seventh, eighth and ninth before embarking on the back nine where rolled in birdies at the 10^th, 17^th and 18^th, to sign for his 65 which gave him a grand total of 16 under par 268, to win by four shots from Canada’s Aaron Cockerill and South Arica’s Lawrence Thriston who shot 67  and 66 in the final round to tie for the second place.

In all, Wu, born on June 22, 1985 who became the first Chinese player to win on home soil in the European Tour when he captured the 2015 Volvo China Open, had a total of 24 birdies and eight bogeys this week at Muthaiga.

Currently ranked 28 in the DP World Tour, and 342 in the World and who turned pro in 2007 had won three DP World Tour titles before the Magical Kenya Open.

‘’It’s a very very good feeling today to win a championship. It was very tough today, I played very very well today and made seven birdies.

“After two rounds I told myself if I can make five under every day on the weekend and finish 15 under, I think I’ll have a chance to win the tournament.

“Today I was four shots behind and still playing to my plan. Five under was my goal today and after ten holes I had a good felling and I told myself I’ll keep playing and make a couple of birdies and it’s fine.

“My short game was good today also, I saved a couple of pars, my putting was good to make birdies on the 17th and 18th, I’m happy.

“I think a lot of Chinese people came to support me and I was happy to see them. “It’s a big celebration, I’m so happy with my family here’’   Shadded Wu who took home 297,500 Euro (about Sh37, 175,131) while the two players who tied for second place won (Sh16, 282,334).

On the other hand, Cockerill birdied the second, fourth, eighth, 11^th, and 17^th, with an eagle at the 10, all those against bogeys at the first, seventh and 16^th holes. The South African Thriston bogeyed the 14^th, having picked up three birdies at the front nine, an eagle at the fourth and only one birdie at the back nine’s 10^th for the fay’s 66 to tie with Cockerill and Germany’s Hurly Long who also shot 66 in the closing round for 12 under par 272. England’s David Horsey was just a shot behind them on 11 under par 273.

Meanwhile day three leader Ewen Ferguson from Scotland and not Sweden as he had been reported earlier, found the going tough as he bogeyed three holes and two double-bogeyed to finish on five over par 75, to drop to eighth place nine under par 275 in tie with Sweden’s Marcus Kinhult.

The final leader board:

1. Ashun Wu (Ch) 69, 68, 66, 65= 268

T2. Lawrence Thriston (SA) 69, 66, 71, 66= 272

Hurly Long (Ger) 68, 68, 70 66= 272

Aaron Cockerill (CN) 70, 68, 67, 67= 272

5. David Horsey (Eng) 69, 70, 65, 69= 273

T6. Daniel Gavins (Eng) 64, 73, 70, 67= 274

Matthieu Pavon(Fr) 69, 68, 68, 69= 274.

 

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 6th, 2022 at 10:09 PM and is filed under Golf News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.