Kenya Open: Four-shot lead for Ferguson ahead of final round

Kenya's only representative at the last two rounds of the Magical Kenya Open, Njoroge Kibugu, carded two over par 73 to drop his total rounds count to four under. 

Kibugu, teeing off at 12.31 alongside Swed Jesper Svensson played an almost perfect front nine parring all but one, as he dropped a shot at the par five seventh for 37 out. 

It was at the back nine where he had a mix of bogeys and birdies, dropping shots at the 11th,14th and 16th with birdies at the 10th and 18th for 36 out and the day's 73. 

Kibugu will begin his final round ten shots behind leader Ewen Ferguson who returned five under par for a combined 14 under to take a four shots lead.  

Ferguson entered day three at the par 71 Muthaiga Golf Club a shot off the lead but ended it with the commanding advantage.

Swede Marcus Kinhult and China's Wu Ashun were his nearest challengers, with Spanish duo Jorge Campillo and Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez, England's David Horsey and German Matti Schmid five shots off the lead.

Ferguson birdied the first from 12 feet to join overnight leader Shubhankar Sharma at the top of the leaderboard and then put a brilliant second to ten feet at the par-five fourth to set up an eagle and lead by two.

His lead was cut to one at the turn thanks to a dropped shot at the sixth but he re-established his cushion with a two-putt birdie on the par-five tenth.

The final group of Sharma and Masahiro Kawamura could not find any momentum and when Ferguson holed a 20-footer on the 14th, he was five shots clear of anyone else still on course.

Kinhult had set the clubhouse target at ten under after a 64 which matched the lowest round of his DP World Tour career and the lowest of the week.

He won on the Nordic Golf League last week for a first victory since he missed three months of the 2021 season after being diagnosed with epilepsy and he has brought that form to Nairobi.

The 25-year-old had a birdie-eagle finish to go with six other gains and two bogeys.

Wu joined him in double figures with a 66 as, after birdieing the fourth and giving the shot back on the eighth, he found form around the turn.

He picked up shots on the ninth and tenth, put his tee-shot to six feet at the 11th and holed a 15-footer on 13th before making birdie from similar range on his penultimate hole.

That had him within three shots of Ferguson but the leader got up and down on the par-five last for a closing birdie and a four-shot advantage.

Additional reporting by DP World Tour