Dismas Indiza wins Great Rift leg of Safari Tour

Dismas Indiza played a round of 1-under par, 70, to take his overall score to 1-over par, 285, earning him the Great Rift Valley Lodge & Golf Resort, Safari Tour title.

The hard hitting Indiza started the round, 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.

Ngige opened his round with a birdie on the par-4 first, with Indiza bogeying on the same. The scores were reversed on the par-4 second, as Indiza hit birdie with Ngige dropping a shot. Ngige would drop a further two shots on the third, with Indiza holding par.

It was still advantage Ngige through the first nine, as he did enough to hold off Indiza, despite dropping a shot at the seventh for a turning score of 2-over par, 37, with Indiza carding 1-over par, 36.

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 fourteenth and fifteenth, 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.

Speaking after the win, Indiza was pleasantly surprised to get his hands on his second Safari Tour title this season.

“I am very happy to win this leg of the Safari Tour, I actually had not realised that I had beaten Ngige and was preparing for a playoff, only for Ngige to congratulate me at the end of the round.”

“It has been a challenging four days, but I tried to maintain my game despite the changing weather and I am pleased with the result, I will keep working towards winning the other legs and ultimately qualifying for the 2020 Magical Kenya Open.” He added.

On his part, Ngige rued his missed chances, while congratulating Indiza for a great game, “I could have wrapped up the title at several points in the round, I started well but failed to keep up with Dismas, congratulations to him for a great round of golf.”

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 Sh 75,000 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. With Zimbabwe’s Robson Chinhoi finishing in fourth, with a gross score of 292.

Amateur Simon Njogu took full advantage of playing in his home club, to lift the silver salver, 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.