MKO: Near-perfect start for Mutahi as Ngige falters

On his Magical Kenya Open debut as a professional, 22-year-old Mutahi Kibugu, one of the Kenyan professional golfers taking part in the four-day European Tour event had an almost perfect start, carding three under par 68.

Teeing off from the par five tenth, Mutahi set the ball rolling with a birdie but bogeyed the next two only to recover at the par four 14th with another birdie. He dropped a shot at the par four 15th.

Back-to-back birdies at the par three 16th and par four 17th saw Mutahi return a 34 in on his front nine, setting the stage for an even better back nine.

He played a bogey-less last nine holes, picking birdies at the par three second and par five fourth for 34 out and a three under par 68 to place 13th on the leader board before the afternoon tee off where his teenage brother Njoroge Kibugu is playing.

MKO: Sibling rivalry as Kibugu brothers take on Muthaiga course

Meanwhile, Thika Sports Club’s resident golfer Simon Ngige had a perfect start to his round, playing a blemish-less first nine with birdies on the tenth, eleventh and sixteenth.

His round remained perfect in the first five holes of his back nine and was well on his way to carding an under-par score but double bogeys at the par four sixth and eight saw him drop form a three under par to one over par 72 for the first round.

Also teeing off in the morning was Muthaiga’s Greg Snow who played for four birdies and a similar number of bogeys for par at the conclusion of his first round.

Five birdies a similar number of shots dropped for hard hitting Mumias-based Dismas Indiza saw the 54-year old return a 71 score. Captain John Wangai carded two over par with Samuel Njoroge and Daniel Nduva going three over.