Gavin takes one-shot lead at Muthaiga

On a day that Kenyan golfers struggled to impress on the course, Englishman Daniel Gavin shot seven under par 64 to go top of the Magical Kenya Open leaderboard at the conclusion of the first round. 

Playing at the 'home of golf, the par 71 Muthaiga Golf Club, the Kenyans found the going tough with 18-year old amateur golfer Njoroge Kibugu the best placed Kenyan having carded one under par 70 to tie 40th. 

Playing on home course, Kibugu picked two birdies in the front nine at the par four, third and the par five, fourth, having dropped a shot at the par four, first for 35 out. He dropped a shot at the par three, 16th and a birdie at the par five 18th to level the back nine at 35 for the day's score. 

Greg Snow is the second-best Kenyan having played for 38 out with bogeys at the second, fourth and sixth holes and a double bogey at the seventh. He picked birdies at the par four, first, third and eight. 

On his back nine, he dropped one shot at the par three, 13th and played for three birdies to carded 33 in and the day's 71. 

Meawhile, Gavin was over par after five holes but he made six birdies in seven holes from the 16th and added two more for a 64 that left him at seven under.

India's Shubhankar Sharma and American Johannes Veerman were a shot off the lead, one ahead of Scot Ewen Ferguson and England's Lee Slattery.

Gavins' carder the lowest rpund of his DP World Tour career. His previous lowest round was a 65, a score he matched in the final round of last season's ISPS HANDA World Invitational presented by Modest! Golf Management as he won a maiden DP World Tour title. 

A sixth-placed finish at the 2021 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is the 2015 and 2018 Qualifying School graduate's only other top ten but he achieved his two best Rolex Series finishes on this season's Desert Swing to sit comfortably inside the top 100 on the early-season ranking.

“I was pretty rusty to start with. I hadn’t played for a couple of weeks but I just started holing a few putts," Gavin said. “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 but today I felt a few things that were nice and it was positive, really.

Veerman, on his part, made a flying start, hitting a stunning second into the tenth to leave himself a short putt for eagle and he added birdies at the 12th, 17th, 18th, fourth and fifth to take command.

Gavins also took advantage of the tenth by making a birdie but he dropped shots on the 13th and 14th before a hat-trick of gains from the 16th got him moving in the right direction.

He made another three in a row from the second and with Veerman making his only bogey of the day on the eighth, a birdie on the seventh had Gavins in a share of the lead.

The 30-year-old hit the pin with his approach into the ninth and looked to have an uphill task to make his par but he rolled in from around 70 feet for birdie to take the solo lead.

Sharma chipped in at the first for a birdie and made three in a row from the eighth before hitting a beautiful shot to seven feet from the rough at the 14th.

His tee-shot on the 18th was not ideal but he got up and down from a greenside bunker for a sixth birdie of the day and a share of second.

Slattery also birdied the last to go with five other gains and a single bogey, while Ferguson eagled the tenth and added six birdies and three bogeys in a roller coaster round.

South African Dean Burmester and Dutchman Wil Besseling were both bogey-free, while Japan's Masahiro Kawamura carded six birdies and two bogeys to sit three shots off the lead at four under.

There was then a group of 14 players at three under including defending champion Justin Harding who birdied four of his last six holes.

Additional reporting by European Tour