Royal Nairobi’s Erick Ooko rediscovered his form in Round 3 his home leg in the ongoing Safari Tour Golf Series, carding a round leading score of 3-under par 69, to tie at the top of the leaderboard with Thika’s Simon Ngige with a round of 2 over par.
Ooko, who had a share of the lead after Round One before crumbling in the second round, recovered superbly today to make the most of the overnight leader’s slip up.
The home pro started his round in strong fashion, hitting two birdies in the opening five holes while holding par through the rest. He then hit a bogey on the par-3 sixth before recovering immediately with a birdie on the 7th to wrap up his front nine with another bogey on the ninth for a 1-under par score.
His conservative approach in the second nine paid off as he hit two birdies at the par-5,15th and par-4,18th while holding par through the rest of the holes to return around score of 3-under par 69.
Speaking after his round, Ooko expressed delight in getting his form back after yesterday’s slip up as he looked forward to the final round. “I needed to play well today, especially after yesterday. I am happy with my performance and look forward to an even better showing tomorrow.”
On his part, Simon Ngige played a round of 2 over par 74, after a double bogey on the par-3 13th, which he failed to recover from. The duo sits five shots ahead of the chasing pack led by Golf Park’s Tony Omuli who played a round of par to take his gross score to 3 over par, 219, one shot ahead of Johnnie Walker-sponsored Dismas Indiza who has had a slow tournament so far.
Kennedy Abuto and Amateur Daniel Nduva are tied in 5th place on gross scores of 5 over par, 221 while the quartet of Golf Park’s David Wakhu (Golf Park), Mohit Mediratta (Sigona), Keneth Bollo (Royal Nairobi) and Riz Charania (Windsor) tied in 7th place, on 6 over par, 222. Action in the final round will tee off at 8:30 am with the winner of the third leg of the 2019/20 Safari Tour, set to be crowned at around 2 pm. The 2019/2020 Safari Tour Series is sponsored by Magical Kenya and Absa.
