Dismas Indiza played a round of 1-under par, 70, to take his overall score to 1-over par, 285, to clinch the Great Rift Valley Lodge & Golf Resort, Safari Tour title.
Indiza started the round with six strokes behind overnight leader, Simon Ngige and with the two drawn to play alongside each other from the last group, it was always going to be an exciting end to the tournament for the hard-hitting Johnnie Walker-sponsored golfer.
Ngige opened the round with a birdie on the par-4 first. Indiza, however bogeyed on the same round but tables turned with reversed scores on the par-4 second, as Indiza hit birdie while Ngige dropped a shot.
It was a bad evening for the unlucky Ngige who dropped two more shots on the third, with Indiza holding par.
Despite dropping a shot at the seventh for a turning score of 2-over par, 37, with Indiza carding 1-over par, 36, he still held on to a slim advantage through the first nine, as he did enough to hold off the eventual winner-Indiza.
At the back nine, Indiza put the pedal to the metal, as Ngige simply failed to keep up. The two matched each other through holes 10 to 12, posting scores of par, par and bogey. Apart from the par-4 sixteenth, it was the only time Ngige matched Indiza’s score on the back nine.
A bogey and a double bogey on the 14 and 15, by Ngige, respectively, as Indiza held par, saw the two go into the last three holes with Ngige holding a one shot lead.
They would both hold par at the sixteenth, before Indiza birdied the par-5, seventeenth, to tie for the lead heading to the last hole, the par-4, eighteenth. Ngige would hold on for par, as Indiza sunk a 10-foot putt for birdie and the Great Rift Valley Lodge & Golf Resort, Safari tour title.
“I actually had not realised that I had beaten Ngige and was preparing for a play-off, only for Ngige to congratulate me at the end of the round,” a surprised Indiza said after the final round.
For his troubles, Indiza pocketed Sh105,000 and a maximum 50 ‘Road to the 2020 Magical Kenya Open’ points, to take his total to 290.6 at the top of the standings.
Ngige took home Sh75,000 and posted 48 points to take him into third place on the Road to Kenya Open standings.
Nigeria’s Andrew Oche Odoh finished in third, with a gross score of 4-over par, 288, two shots behind Ngige and three behind the winner. Zimbabwe’s Robson Chinhoi finished in fourth, with a gross score of 292.
Amateur Simon Njogu took full advantage of playing in his home clubto lift the silver, after finishing in seventh place on a score of 294.
Attention now shifts to the Muthaiga Golf Club which will play host of the seventh leg of the 2019/20 Safari Tour from the 14th – 17th of December 2019.