Dismas Indiza the winner of the Great Rift valley Lodge & Golf Resort leg of the Safari tour poses with his trophy.

By DANIELLA APIYO AND AMANDA DAMARIS

Veteran Mumias golfer Dismas Indiza is the winner of the just concluded Great RiftValley Lodge and Golf Resort safari tour title held in Naivasha today.
Indiza played a round of 1-under par, 70, to take his overall score to 1-over par, 285, earning him the Great Rift Valley Lodge & Golf Resort, Safari tour title.
The hard hitting Indiza started the round, six strokes behind overnight leader, Simon Ngige and with the two drawn to play alongside each other from the last group, it was always going to be an exciting end to the tournament.
Ngige opened his round with a birdie on the par-4 first, with Indiza bogeying on the same. The scores were reversed on the par-4 second, as Indiza hit birdie with Ngige dropping a shot. Ngige would drop a further two shots on the third, with Indiza holding par.
It was still advantage Ngige through the first nine, as he did enough to hold off Indiza, despite dropping a shot at the seventh for a turning score of 2-over par, 37, with Indiza carding 1-over par, 36.
At the back nine, Indiza put the pedal to the metal, as Ngige simply failed to keep up.  The two matched each other through holes 10 to 12, posting scores of par, par and bogey. Apart from the par-4 sixteenth, it was the only time Ngige matched Indiza’s score on the back nine.

Dismas Indiza the winner of the Great Rift valley Lodge & Golf Resort leg of the Safari tour poses with his trophy.

A bogey and a double bogey on the fourteenth and fifteenth, by Ngige, respectively, as Indiza held par, saw the two go into the last three holes with Ngige holding a one shot lead.
They would both hold par at the sixteenth, before Indiza birdied the par-5, seventeenth, to tie for the lead heading to the last hole, the par-4, eighteenth. Ngige would hold on for par, as Indiza sunk a 10
foot putt for birdie and the Great Rift Valley Lodge & Golf Resort, Safari tour title.
Speaking after the win, Indiza was pleasantly surprised to get his hands on his second Safari Tour title this season.
“I am very happy to win this leg of the Safari Tour, I actually had not realised that I had beaten Ngige and was preparing for a play off, only for Ngige to congratulate me at the end of the round.”said Indiza.

“It has been a challenging for the last four days, but I tried to maintain my game despite the changing weather and I am pleased with the result, I will keep working towards winning the other legs and ultimately qualifying for the 2020 Magical Kenya Open.” He added.
On his part, Ngige rued his missed chances, while congratulating Indiza for a great game, “I could have wrapped up the title at several points in the round, I started well but failed to keep up with Dismas, congratulations to him on a great round of golf.”he said.
Indiza pocketed Ksh 105,000 and a maximum 50 ‘Road to the 2020 Magical Kenya Open’ points, to take his total to 290.6 at the top of the standings,while Ngige walked away with Ksh 75,000 and posted 48 points to take him into third place on the Road to Kenya Open standings.
Nigeria’s Andrew Oche Odoh finished third, with a gross score of 4-over par, 288, two shots behind Ngige and three behind the winner.
With Zimbabwe’s Robson Chinhoi came fourth, with a gross score of 292. Amateur Simon Njogu took full advantage of playing in his home club, to lift the silver salver, after finishing seventh on a score of 294.
Attention now shifts to the Muthaiga Golf Club which will host the seventh leg of the 2019/20 Safari Tour from December 14th to 17.

Simon Ngige in action at the Great Rift Valley Lodge & Golf Resort

By DANIELLA APIYO AND AMANDA DAMARIS

Thika Golf Club’s Simon Ngige played a round of four-under par, 67, to open a six stroke lead at the summit of the Great Rift Valley Lodge & Golf resort leader board, to take his overall score to four-under par, 209, heading into the final round of action.

Ngige shot a total of six birdies and two bogeys, evenly distributed across the nines to take him six shots clear of Johnnie Walker sponsored Dismas Indiza, who carded a round of 1-under par, 70, to take his gross score to 2-over par, 215, one ahead of Rwanda’s Alloys Nsabimana. The two started the round tied in fourth, alongside Railway Golf Club’s Alfred Nandwa.

Professional Golfers of Kenya (PGK) captain CJ Wangai who started the round in second, dropped three places to fifth after returning a round score of four-over, 75, to take his overall tally to 5-over par 218. Nigeria’s Andrew Odoh who was tied with Wangai after round two, carded a round score of 6-over par, 77, to see him finish the round in seventh place.

Amateur Simon Njogu, currently leads the race to the Silver Salver, with a gross score of 4-over par, 217,in fourth position, 5 shots ahead of Daniel Nduva who has lifted the amateur title thrice this season of the Safari tour.

It was a better scoring round than what was witnessed in the opening two rounds with five players recording scores of par or better, namely, Simon Ngige (4-under par), Simon Njogu (2-under par), home pro Jastas Madoya and Dismas Indiza (1-under par) and Rwanda’s Alloys Nsabimana.

Attention now shifts to the last round of action which tees off at 9AM, with the field chasing Simon Ngige and a stake of the Sh1 million.