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.

Inci Mehmet, England, tees off the 1st hole during a past event.

By DANIELLA APIYO AND AMANDA DAMARIS

The 2019 Magical Kenya Ladies Open, a Ladies European Tour event sponsored by Magical Kenya and Safaricom’s M-Pesa, will offer a total prize fund of Sh 33.7 million (Euros 300,000) with the overall winner taking home Sh 5 million (Euros 45,000).

Announcing the prize purse, event promoter U.COM’s Dirk Glittenberg said that the purse was globally competitive. “This is the first time a Ladies European Tour event is being held in Kenya and we are delighted that we have received the necessary support to enable us to host this event and offer a globally acceptable and attractive prize purse. Professional golfers choose which tournaments to play in based on a variety of factors – course condition, hospitality is important, convenience of getting to the venue, the overall experience expected and naturally the prize purse plays a big part in that decision-making process.”

The Euros300,000 prize fund for the Magical Kenya Ladies Open positions the event as one of the richest on the Ladies European Tour. The Investec South Africa Women’s Open, played in Cape Town, offers a prize fund of US$135,600 (Sh13.6m) and the Lalla Meryem Cup, played at the Royal Dar Es Salam Blue Course in Morocco, offers a prize fund of Euros450,000 (Sh50.5m). The prize fund at the Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open in Abu Dhabi is US$300,000 and at the Jordan Mixed Open, it is US$393,000.

“There are 17 events on the Ladies European Tour calendar, excluding the Majors, eight of those offer a smaller prize purse than the Magical Kenya Ladies Open, four offer more and another four offer the same prize fund of Euros300,000,” Glittenberg added. “We however understand that these professional golfers will also be driven to this beautiful country by factors over and above the prize purse and we know they will have a great time in Kenya. They can visit the beautiful beaches and game parks, enjoy the coastal cuisine and take away with them an experience of a lifetime.”

The Magical Kenya Ladies Open takes place from the 5^th to the 8^th December 2019 on the PGA Baobab Course at Vipingo Ridge.