Njoroge Kibugu posted the All-Africa Junior Golf Championship best round for the second consecutive day to move up to second on the individual players’ leaderboard as Team Kenya’s hopes of making it to the annual Toyota Junior Golf World Cup in Japan went up in smoke.
Kibugu carded two under 70 today to move his tournament gross tally to level par as he remained seven shots behind leader South African Pascal Gunther. The Muthaiga Golf player eagled the troublesome par-5 no.4 and birdied the third hole before dropping two shots on the front nine for a well-deserved one under 35 at the interval. Two more birdies on the back nine which sandwiched a bogey on no. 11 saw Kibugu cut the leader’s advantage to seven shots ahead of tomorrow’s epic closing day duel.
Only two players- Kibugu and Zimbabwe’s Michael Wallace- shot under par today on a day run-away leader Gunther who shot an astonishing opening round 88 only managed one over 73.
Despite his exploits, Team Kenya remained in the fourth spot for the third consecutive day on +59 gross, 52 shots behind leaders South Africa. The team failed to gain ground on the leaders today after Andrew Wahome returned a score of +12 to drop six places on the leaderboard while Krish Shah and Elvis Muigua posted +18 and +8 respectively. Team Morocco is tipped to bag the second world cup qualification slot as it sits comfortably in second place on +18 gross, 13 shots behind the leaders. Team Zimbabwe in distant third on +37 has a slight mathematical chance of making it to Japan if Morocco falters tomorrow.
The Kenya girls team is also out of contention for the single world cup ticket after closing the day in fifth position on +82 gross, 89 points behind leaders South Africa. Bianca Ngecu was Team Kenya’s best performer today posting +9 followed by Belinda Wanjiru on +15, one better than Alyssa Jamal.
BOYS GROSS LEADERBOARD
S Africa +5
Morocco +18
Zimbabwe +37
Kenya +59
Uganda +68
Zambia +72
Tunisia +76
Namibia +76
Egypt +90
Mauritius +120
Botswana +186
Gabon +250
GIRLS GROSS LEADERBOARD
S Africa -7
Morocco +4
Zimbabwe +34
Egypt +79
Kenya +82
Zambia +104
Uganda +114
Tunisia +131
Botswana +147
