The possibility of a new champion being crowned at this year’s Kenya Open Golf Championship looms with all the top 8 players on the leaderboard on Saturday gunning for their first title.
After two days of bruising battle on the lush greens of Karen Golf and country club the top 8 players occupying the leaderboard are hopeful of finishing the job on Sunday when the DP tour leg culminates.
It will be the third consecutive year that the tournament will witness a new champion being crowned.
Following Darius van Driel’s 2024 win and Jacques Kruyswijk last year, the top eight on the leaderboard at the end of Saturday are all seeking to open their account.
Casey Jarvis and Angel Ayora shared the lead on 17 under par with Hennie Du Plessis and Davis Bryant one behind, Francesco Laporta at 15 under and Ricardo Gouveia, Jacob Skov Olesen and Nathan Kimsey a further shot back.
Ryan van Velzen and Aaron Cockerill were at 13 under along with Antoine Rozner, with the Frenchman’s three titles making him the only previous winner in the top ten.
Joint leader Ayora said: “It would be amazing but I said yesterday I’m going to try to enjoy it, try to have fun tomorrow, and we’ll see.”
Njoroge Kibugu who is the sole Kenyan still in the tournament had a round of 4 over par 74 to have a total of 1 under par 209 and drop to joint 67th but is also still in the hunt for the winners purse prize of Ksh.62.3Million.
Reflecting on his experience, Kibugu said
“It’s been quite insane, been amazing having all the support. My phone was going off! I saw Justin Rose commented on one of the posts and that made my whole evening. It’s pretty special, my parents are really happy – my dad’s ecstatic. He’s been all over the place.” Kibugu won last month’s SunDev Absa Invitational series at this venue on the Big Easy Tour but joked of his performance on the greens in Saturday’s 74: “I think I forgot how to read them today!”
