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Englishman Gavins takes one stroke advantage as Magical Kenya Open tees off

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NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 3 – Englishman Daniel Gavins fired a scintillating 7 under par 64 to claim a one stroke advantage over USA pro Johannes Veerman and India’s Shubhankar Sharma as the Magical Kenya Open teed off in earnest on Thursday at the Par 71 Muthaiga Golf Course.

Gavins who seemed comfortable on the lawn from the first tee had his campaign effectively sewn up as he sunk 9 birdies on a sunny day in the office.

“It was pretty rusty to start with, I hadn’t played for a couple of weeks but I just started holing a few putts. My swing has been a bit off at the start of the year and I’ve been struggling a little bit with finding the feeling really, but today I felt a few things that were nice and it was positive really,” said Gavins at the end of the opening day.

American Veerman who posted a round of 6 under par 65 said he felt inspired to hit great shots on day one.

“I’m very happy. This course is very tight, I cannot stress how big these trees are. You think you can take these carry lines but you can’t because these trees are 40 yards tall. So I’m really happy with how I played and I’m really happy with six under,” he said.

Joint fourth with 5 under are Ewen Ferguson and Lee Slattery.

Tied for sixth were Masahiro Kawamura, South African Dean Burmester and Wil Besseling of Netherlands.

Besseling is no stranger to Kenyan courses having won the inaugural KCB Karen Masters in 2018.

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South African Burmester who played a 67 (-4) was also happy with his round despite tough course conditions.

The firm greens have made the course somewhat tough to post good scores.

He said: “it was pretty solid. I kept it together when I was in trouble and I manged to find my way back to the fairway and get it up and down for pars. It’s a narrow golf course with a little bit of swirling wind so it’s always going to be tough, and the greens were firming up the last six holes.”

Round Two on Friday will determine who goes into the money bracket for the last two days.

A total of 156 golfers are taking part in the event.

DAY ONE LEADERBOARD

1 GAVINS, Daniel (ENG) -7

2 SHARMA, Shubhankar (INDIA) -6

VEERMAN, Johannes (USA) -6

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4 FERGUSON, Ewen -5

SLATTERY, Lee -5 18 -5

6 KAWAMURA, Masahiro -4

6 (BURMESTER, Dean RSA) -4

  1. BESSELING, Wil(NED) -4

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