Great Rift Valley’s Jastas Madoya believes his two stroke advantage is a great Motivation towards his hunt for Muthaiga’s Safari Tour round.
“The plan today wasn’t to attack but to hit the fairways more and putt with precision. Tomorrow’s (today) will inform the game plan going into the last rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday,” Madoya said of his sprited level par 71 which handed him an early lead at the “Home of Golf.”
Madoya, who is sponsored by ABSA, savoured his two strokes lead ahead of the home players Greg Snow and Jeff Kubwa, who alongside Nigeria’s Andrew Odoh and Limuru’s John Karichu, fired rounds of 2-over par, 73.
Madoya oozed confidence from his first tee shot— parring on the first hole before following this up with three bogeys on the second, fifth and sixth and a birdie on the fourth, for a front nine score of 2-over par, 38.
At the back nine, Madoya started off with a birdie on the par-5 10th, hitting further birdies at the 12fth, 13th and 18th while bogeying the 14th and 16th for a score of 2-under par, 33 and a round score of par, 71.
Johnnie Walker-sponsored Greg Snow dropped two shots in the round, both on the front nine, at the par-5 fourth and par-4 eighth, while holding par through the rest of the holes for a 2-over par score, club compatriot Jeff Kubwa had a similar run, with his dropped shots coming at the second and eighth.
Nigeria’s Andrew Odoh hit back-to-back bogeys at the second and third, before momentarily recovering with a birdie at the fourth,. He went on to drop further shots at the sixth, ninth and twelfth, with his second birdie coming at the 13th for a round score of 2-over par, 73.
The quartet sit one shot ahead of Vet Lab’s duo of Edwin Asuza and Isaiah Otuke, Rwanda’s Aloys Nsabimana, Uganda’s Philip Kasozi, Mohit Mediratta, Golf Park’s Anthony Juma and amateur Zubair Khan who are tied in sixth on scores of 3-over par, 74.
It was a tough round characterised by high scores. With the course wet and soft, the round also saw two withdrawals by Alfred Nandwa and Charan Thethy due to injuries with amateurs Wassim Ali and Chanelle Wangari failing to make the cut to play in the second round after returning scores of 93 and 97 respectively. Round two action tees off at today at 10am with the field aiming to make the cut to play in the third and fourth rounds
