Tournament: Magical Kenya Open presented by absa
Race to Dubai: Tournament 12 of 44 events
The International Swing: Tournament 6 of 8 events
Venue: Muthaiga Golf Club, Nairobi, Kenya
Prize Fund: $2,500,000
Hashtag: #MKO2024 #DPWT
Round One Report
Darius van Driel carded a five under par 66 to take a one stroke lead after the first round of the Magical Kenya Open presented by absa.
The Dutchman, making his seventh appearance in Kenya’s national open, quickly reached three under with a trio of consecutive birdies from the second hole and then eagled the par five tenth hole to move to five under after making the turn at Muthaiga Golf Club.
He then recovered from dropped shots on the 11th and 13th holes with birdies on the 16th and 18th to hold a one-stroke lead ahead of a clutch of competitors on four under.
South African Ryan van Velzen is among those in a share of second place, as he continues his excellent form at the start of 2024. The 23-year-old won the Mediclinic Invitational on the Sunshine Tour in January and then finished runner-up at the Bain’s Whisky Cape Town Open earlier this month.
Joining him on four under par are van Driel’s compatriot Daan Huizing, Frederic Lacroix of France, Finland’s Tapio Pulkkanen, German Yannick Schuetz and Scotsman Connor Syme.
Leading the home charge are Njoroge Kibugu and Greg Snow who carded level par rounds of 71. Kibugu made the cut at this event as an amateur in 2022, while Snow is hoping to make the weekend for the first time in 16 attempts.
Player Quotes
Darius van Driel: “It was pretty solid. Hit a lot of fairways, which you need to do here or you make it very hard for yourself. I holed some nice putts, it went exactly how I wanted to play, so I’m happy.
“I see this course more as a links course, fiddly with the altitude and the heat. There’s a bit of scraping it around, I kind of like that golf.
“I have a little bit of a cough, so it’s not ideal for me with the heat and the altitude, but I managed to get through.”
Daan Huizing: “A lovely round. Right from the first tee shot, I started on hole ten, it’s really helpful on these par fives. If you hit the fairway you’ll have a short shot into the green. I did that on ten, got off to a good start. Holed a couple of nice putts on 13 and 14 and in every way I was playing solid. The last six to eight weeks I’ve put in a lot of hard work.
“There’s a lot of clarity in my game right now in each part of the game, I know what to do. Mentally I’ve got some good goals out there and I just stay busy with that. I don’t look at the score too much, three more rounds to go, the entire year to go. That’s my approach and I’ll just keep doing what I need to do.”
Tapio Pulkkanen: “When I first came here on Tuesday and played the practice round it felt really tough, the rough was really high up. I think the course dried out a little bit, so I could play more two irons instead of driver. I played more of those off the tee and I was steady. Only one bogey, so I’m happy.
“You can easily lose a ball five metres off the fairway. You have to really look where it goes. Of course the altitude makes it a bit tougher as well. I’m happy with what I did today.”
Connor Syme: “I didn’t actually feel like I played that well, to be totally honest. I just managed my game pretty well. My putter saved me on a few occasions. I made four or five decent putts. I was saying to my caddie after missing a shot for birdie on the last you’d normally come off the course quite frustrated, but over the course of the day I definitely gained on the greens. I’m very pleased with four under.”
Scores after Round One:
66 D VAN DRIEL (NED),
67 T PULKKANEN (FIN), R VAN VELZEN (RSA), Y SCHUETZ (GER), F LACROIX (FRA), C SYME (SCO), D HUIZING (NED),
68 J DEAN (ENG), J SVENSSON (SWE), C HOWIE (SCO), D YOUNG (SCO), S JONES (NZL), P MOOLMAN (RSA), L SCALISE (ITA), J G?TH-RASMUSSEN (DEN),
69 A SADDIER (FRA), S TARRIO (ESP), N ELVIRA (ESP), M ARMITAGE (ENG), G GREEN (MAS), A CHESTERS (ENG), E FERGUSON (SCO), A OTAEGUI (ESP), C JARVIS (RSA), R NEERGAARD-PETERSEN (DEN), J GIRRBACH (SUI), I CANTERO (ESP), A HIDALGO (ESP), S HUTSBY (ENG), L VACARISAS (ESP), M SCHWAB (AUT), N GALLETTI (USA), M KAWAMURA (JPN), B FOLLETT-SMITH (ZIM), J PARRY (ENG), J CATLIN (USA), J MOSCATEL (ESP),
70 M KINHULT (SWE), L DE JAGER (RSA), R GOUVEIA (POR), A FITZPATRICK (ENG), F KENNEDY (ENG), M ELVIRA (ESP), J GUMBERG (USA), J BERRY (ENG), P BOVARI (ITA), A COCKERILL (CAN), E PEPPERELL (ENG), R HOSHINO (JPN), T LAWRENCE (RSA), G MIGLIOZZI (ITA), N VON DELLINGSHAUSEN (GER), O CHOUHAN (IND), A SULLIVAN (ENG), J KRUYSWIJK (RSA),
71 N KIBUGU (KEN), O FARR (WAL), R LANGASQUE (FRA), A PAVAN (ITA), O BEKKER (RSA), T LEWIS (ENG), C MCKINNEY (AUS), C SORDET (FRA), A DEL REY (ESP), G SNOW (KEN), M SCHNEIDER (GER), D GERMISHUYS (RSA), T AIKEN (RSA), S FORSSTR?M (SWE), S SHARMA (IND), E MOLINARI (ITA), P KATICH (GER), J SURI (USA),
72 J RUTHERFORD (ENG), D LAW (SCO), J BLIXT (SWE), F CELLI (ITA), S GARCIA (ESP), D RAVETTO (FRA), D FRITTELLI (RSA), H BARRON (AUS), B RUSCH (SUI), J KO (FRA), M BESARD (BEL), D HORSEY (ENG), N BACHEM (GER), S BROWN (ENG), A LEVY (FRA), R RUGUMAYO (UGA), J NICHOLAS (USA),
73 T VAILLANT (FRA), J DONALDSON (WAL), L VAN MEIJEL (NED), R PARATORE (ITA), S MANLEY (WAL), A WU (CHN), S BAIRSTOW (ENG), A BLOMME (SWE), F SCHOTT (GER), J BRUN (FRA), D MOSTERT (RSA), V MAPWANYA (ZIM), J MADOYA (KEN), G PORTEOUS (ENG), B THORNBERRY (USA),
74 M KISIA (KEN), R ENOCH (WAL), C PURCELL (IRL), A GARCIA-HEREDIA (ESP), M KIEFFER (GER), K APHIBARNRAT (THA), D INDIZA ANYONYI (KEN), D NDUVA (KEN), M JORDAN (ENG), A WILSON (ENG), J AXELSEN (DEN),
75 O WILSON (ENG), T POWER HORAN (AUS), J GOUGH (ENG), J DAVIDSON (WAL), M KARANGA (AM) (KEN), J WALTERS (RSA), G BOYD (ENG), M QUIROS (ESP), W NIENABER (RSA),
76 S FRIEDRICHSEN (DEN), M KIBUGU (KEN), P FIGUEIREDO (POR), S BROHOLT LIND (DEN), L RUUSKA (FIN), D KAMULINDWA (UGA), K HIGA (JPN),
77 W ENEFER (ENG), S NJOROGE (KEN), M MEDIRATTA (KEN), M WARREN (SCO),
78 J DE BRUYN (GER), J WANG (KOR), J LEJIRMA (AM) (KEN),
79 J HARDING (RSA),
80 J RONO (AM) (KEN),
81 I MAKOKHA (AM) (KEN),
**
OUT K JOHANNESSEN (NOR), H LONG (GER),
