- Scot Ewen Ferguson will look to clinch his first Open title
- Kenya’s teen sensation Njoroge Kibugu dropped out of the top 10
- The Magical Kenya Open concludes Sunday
Scotland’s Ewen Ferguson posted an impressive five under par 66 on the penultimate day of the Magical Kenya Open at the Muthaiga Golf Club to head into Sunday’s finale top of the leaderboard.
The Scot started off day two playing a first hole birdie and a quick eagle at the fourth, in addition with three birdies at the back nine’s 10th, 14th and 18th with the only bogey of the day coming at the sixth hole.
He gradually built to that start and went top on 14 under par 199, four shots better than Swedish player Marcus Kinhult and China’s Ashiun Wu who finished Saturday’s round second and third respectively.
“I was playing well coming into the day, made a nice birdie on one which I settled me down a little bit. I think that was the key today, momentum just kept going, I was holing clutch three or four putts to keep me going and I just played nicely and plodded my way around,” said Ferguson, who looks to build on the momentum heading into the final round.
Kinhult who is making his debut at the Magical Kenya Open picked up seven birdies and an eagle finish at the 18th hole in a round that also saw him drop two shots one in each nine for his seven under par 64.
This left him with a three rounds total of 10 under par 203, to tie for the second place with Ashun Wu who birdied six holes and dropped one shot for the day’s five under par 66.
“I hit some good shots, gave myself a couple of ten-footers and managed to hole them. I’ve been aggressive on the par fives, especially at 18 there, hitting driver and threading the gap between the bunkers and if you do that, the ball runs forever,” he said after the round.
Chinese Wu finished five under for the day.
The two were separated by only a shot from a group of five players led by Germany’s Matti Schmid who shot a 64 in the third round for a total of 64, tying with David Horsey of England, Sebastian Garcia from Spain, Thomas Detry of Belgium and Spain’s Jorge Campillo, one of the tournament favourites who fired six under 65 to also wind up the day on 204.
Day Two leader Shubhankar Sharma of India
It was not a good outing for day two leader Shubhankar Sharma of India and his play-mate Masahiro Kawamura from Japan who had started the day on 10 under and nine under par respectively.
Sharma however played four over par 75 in the third round, to drop to tying 17th with seven other players while Kawamura posted one over par 72 to close the day on eight under par 205.
Teeing off for the last round starts at 7am with the two leaders Ferguson and Kinhult expected to tee off from 12.40pm.
Kenya’s Day Two wonderboy Njoroge Kibugu could not replicate his performance on Saturday as he dipped from T5 to T33 after posting a 73.
“I’m disappointed but I’m moving forward. I had lots of miscalculations off the tees and off my second shots. I just shot-sided myself a lot more today and it distracted me more,” he said after Saturday’s round.
The teenage home amateur player was in fine form on the front nine where he parred all holes save for the bogey, he picked on the Par 5 seventh. He went into the first nine with a +1 but then sank in a birdie at the par 5 tenth for a level par.
Kenya’s teen sensation Njoroge Kibugu
Three more bogeys on the Par 3 eleventh, par 4 fourteenth and par three 16th dipped him to +3. He then made a birdie on the 18th to close the day with a +2.
The leaderboard
Ewen Ferguson (Sco) 66, 67, 66= 199
Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 71, 68, 64= 203
Ashun Wu (Ch) 69, 68, 66= 203
Matti Schmid (Ger) 69, 71, 64= 204
David Horsey (Eng) 69, 70, 65= 204
Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez (Sp) 70, 68, 66= 204
Thomas Detry (Bel) 70, 68. 66= 204
Jorge Campillo (Sp) 70, 69, 65= 204.
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