– Jacques Kruyswijk (-14) is the sole leader of the Magical Kenya Open with 18 holes to go. His big day. He is 32 years old and has never won on the DP World Tour. In fact, he has never led on a Sunday, despite having played 138 tournaments. He has also never finished second or third. This is his great opportunity to turn around a career that lacks sparkle. He has won three times on the Sunshine Tour and once more on the Challenge, but he has not stood out at the highest level. His best position in the Race to Dubai was in 2018, his debut year on the Tour. He finished in 100th place.
– He has taken the lead with an extraordinary round of 64 strokes in really challenging conditions at the Muthaiga Golf Club. The greens are already very firm and the wind has been blowing cheerfully. He avoided bogeys and finished with a magnificent sequence of 30 strokes on the back nine. He has a one-stroke advantage over John Parry (-13), whose bogey-free streak broke on the 1st hole, and three over Benjamin Hebert (-11), who has again suffered from altitude sickness that affects him every time he climbs higher in the rankings. Four strokes behind is South African Deon Germishuys (-10).
– It all points to the victory in Nairobi being for one of these four players, as the fifth place is already at eight under par. In any case, if this Kenyan venue has shown anything, it’s that there can be a big difference in strokes in just one round. An inspired day allows you to score very low, while it’s very difficult to hide from a bad day. Between Kruyswijk and Hebert, there has been a nine-stroke difference.
– The Spaniards seem out of the winning equation, unless something very strange happens. They are too far behind. A win would require a stellar round from those best placed. These are the cases of Nacho Elvira (-6), Eugenio López Chacarra (-6), or Ángel Ayora (-5). All of them shot a 69 today, which is not bad, but insufficient to really emerge as contenders for victory on Sunday.
– Curious what happened to Ayora. The Malaga native bent his 9-iron in the second round, rendering it unusable. It happened when hitting the second shot on the 10th hole from the rough. He struck a root hidden beneath the ground. Beyond some slight discomfort in the elbow and shoulder of the young Andalusian, the club took the worst of it. This same setback could have been resolved in another tournament, but resources in Kenya are more limited. Thus, today he had to play the third round without a 9-iron, leaving a significant gap between the 8-iron and the pitching wedge. As Murphy’s Law would have it, today, Saturday, they moved up the tee on the 2nd hole, par 3, a perfect 9-iron for Ángel. He had to settle for hitting a softer 8, and he nailed the shot. A five-metre birdie chance that didn’t drop. To fill the 9-iron gap, they added the 4-iron. The change didn’t go badly. They used it on the 7th hole, and the result was superb. After missing the fairway on this par 5, they had to lay up and left a third shot of 230 metres into a headwind. He made an approach and putt. Sometimes Murphy doesn’t get his way.
– As for the rest of the Spaniards, the main objective should be to get into the top 10 or top 5, in the case of Adri Arnaus (-4), Joel Moscatel (-3), Albert Boneta (-2), or Santi Tarrio (-2). Boneta’s round, by the way, was heavily marked by a triple bogey on the 14th. Further back are Jorge Campillo (+1) and Manu Elvira (+3). A very bad day for both.
