Shubhankar Sharma leads by one shot in Magical Kenya Open

Nairobi, Mar 4 (Golf News) India's Shubhankar Sharma added a fine four-under 67 to his first round score of six-under 65 to get to 10-under par and hold a one-shot lead in the Magical Kenya Open golf tournament here on Friday.

Sharma, looking for his third DP World Tour title, was followed by Japanese Masahiro Kawamura (66) and Ewen Ferguson (67), both of whom were at nine-under.

Sharma's first DP World Tour win came at the Joburg Open in South Africa followed by the second one was in Malaysia.

Teeing off from the 10th, Sharma had a slow start with two pars and a bogey and that was followed by three more pars. At that stage, he was one-over after eight holes for the second round.

Then came the eagle on Par-5 18th that gave him wings for the rest of the round.

On his second nine, a birdie on Par-3 second followed by a bogey on third meant, he was still one over for the day.

Then he had three birdies in last four holes, including back-to-back efforts on eighth and ninth, his closing holes.

"I'm really happy, whenever you finish with two birdies you're always happy. It was a good round for me today, it was quite a slow start for me starting on the back nine, not much was happening for me, but that eagle on the 18th really propelled me," Sharma said.

"The front nine (his second nine) was great, missed birdie opportunities on both the par fives but came back strong on eight and nine with birdies and I'm really pleased with the score.

"It does fly a long way, personally I've done well whenever I play at altitude, I'm good at controlling my irons, so I did not do too much trackman work this week. I might have hit about 50 balls on the trackman this week – and I just got my numbers." Earlier, Sharma got off to a flying start with a bogey-free six-under 65 to be placed tied-2nd after the opening round.

Sharma, who finished second at the Rolex Series Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, had three birdies on either side of the Muthaiga Golf Club on the DP World Tour in the opening round. 

Also Read : Lahiri begins with 1-over 73 in Palmer Invitational; McIlroy opens with 65

News Source : PTI

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