Kenyan professional Mutahi Kibugu led the local charge on the opening day of the 2023 Magical Kenya Open at the par 71 Muthaiga Golf Club in Nairobi on Thursday.
Kibugu had six birdies and three bogeys and tied for 20th place with three under par 68. Last year, his brother Njoroge led the Kenyan campaign with a -1.
Before the tournament, Kibugu admitted to his intense rivalry with his younger brother Njoroge, 19, who was the best-placed Kenyan in the event last season.
He revealed that their childhood rivalry was what prompted him to keep focus and qualify for the MKO this season after missing out last year.
Second among Kenyans were Dismas Indiza and Greg Snow on level par while Simon Ngige of Thika and Njoroge Kibugu are on 1 over par 72 after the first 18 holes.
Going into the much-anticipated Friday cutline, where Mutahi tees off at 12.40 pm, the youngster says he will stick to the same game plan he had on Day One. “I’m just going to do what I’m doing; playing to my best numbers and focusing on my strengths. I feel I’m good to go,” he said.
When asked about the course conditions, Mutahi said, “I think the course was playing so well today. It was very accessible, I did well on the fairways where the back nine favoured me.”
He added that the greens were quite fast on the down sections of the new Muthaiga course but were quite moderate on other zones. Mutahi thinks the greens will pose a challenge to handle in the coming days due to the dry, sunny Nairobi.
Mutahi admitted that he had quite a struggle in hole 15, where he missed the pin position by a whisker, with a very catastrophic end result.
“This was a difficult stretch to tackle. I’m sad I got a careless bogey over there, but again the back nine of the course was a much easier side. It had two reachable par fives and short par fours where one could definitely turn a good score when starting with that side of the course,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Dylan Mostert of South Africa and John Catlin of the USA topped the overnight leaderboard going into the second day of the tournament. On this day, the players face the dreaded axe that will deny some of them the chance to dip their hands into the Sh252 million cookie jar.
The 54th edition of the Magical Kenya Open (MKO) began officially yesterday morning at the par 71 Muthaiga Golf Club in Nairobi. A total of 156 players are in contention for the lucrative Sh252 million purse money that is on offer.
