Thika Golf Club’s Simon Ngige carded a round of one-under par, 70, taking his overall score to par, 142, to see him move to the summit of the leaderboard after the second round of play at the Great Rift Valley Lodge and Golf Resort.
Ngige, who started the day at joint-fifth, three strokes behind the overnight leader Frank Matilo, took full advantage of the slow start by the players in front of him to make his surge to the top of the standings.
He started his round on steady form, holding par through his opening three holes, before dropping his first shot at the par-4, fourth. He then recovered with a birdie on the par-5, sixth, followed it up with another at the par-4, ninth for a turning score of one under par, 35.
A further birdie, followed by a bogey on the 14th and 15th respectively were the only notable scores in the back nine as he held par through the other holes for a round score of 1-under par, 70.
Matilo had a round to forget as he carded a score of 8-over par, 79, to send him stumbling down the standings to eighth, tied with Mohit Mediratta, amateur Simon Njogu and Vet Lab’s Edwin Asuza, who started the round in second.
Andrew Oche Odoh of Nigeria, who also started the day in fifth, returned a score of par, to move him into second, one shot behind Ngige on one over par, 143, tied with PGK captain, CJ Wangai, who returned a score of one over par, 72. Odoh dropped one shot in the opening nine holes, following this up with a birdie in the back nine for a round score of par. On his part CJ Wangai played, three bogeys and two birdies, for a one over par score.
It was generally high scoring round, with the CUT eventually set at 11-over par, which saw a total of 24 players, comprised of 22 professionals and 2 amateurs, booking their tickets to play in the third and fourth rounds.
Round Three action tees off at 9 am this morning with players’ focus now shifting to the Sh1m prize purse.
