Da Silva tops
By Shamaoma Musonda -
At Lusaka Golf Club -
Champion in 2010, Brazilian Adilson Da Silva yesterday turned the heat on at the Zambia Sugar-Open Golf Championship taking over leadership by one stroke going into the last day of the competition with a total 11-under-par.
Leader on Day-One and Two, Martin du Toit yesterday played one-over-par 74 to have a nine-under-par overall, while his joint leader on Day-Two Sipho Bujela played three over to drop to seven under-par overall.
Defending champion Justin Harding played level 73, his second of the competition and got a two-under-par overall.
The Zambian interests at the KR3 million tournament yesterday had a rather less-admirable round with Madalitso Muthiya posting one-over-par 74 down to four-under-par while Patrick Mwendapole shot four-over-par to three-over-par overall.
On a windy day that also saw the disappearance of impressive scores that characterised the first two days of likes of eight-under-par, yesterday’s best score was a five under-par from Matthew Carvell, which took him to joint second on 10-under-par.
But the day belonged to former Zambia Open champion Da Silva who shot four-under-par 69 to bring his total at this year’s Zambia Sugar-Open to 208 from 54 holes over three rounds.
Da Silva, who won the 2010 Zambia Open championship in Ndola with a 202 score over three rounds, sunk an eagle and six birdies but the course was not so friendly as he dropped four shots including one on the 17th.
“I was just trying to play each shot, but the back nine is full of birdie holes, so I had to concentrate and produce the goods. It was satisfying to keep the scoring coming. The eagle on the 13th was so satisfying, I holed a long putt, so it was a big momentum swing,” he smiled.
Breathing heavily down on Da Silva’s neck is his Zambian title predecessor Doug McGuigan, who won the 2011 Zambia Open title, with just a stroke off together with Carvell on 10-under-par.
McGuigan, though sitting pretty high, had a sparkless game scoring on all holes save for birdies on the fourth and 18th to make a sumptuous last day of the tournament.
Joint second Carvell, who sunk a hole-in-one of Friday, played a solid game and looked to birdie every hole on the curse but managed six and then dropped on fourth hole, which is the Lusaka Golf Club’s drop-index-number-one (most difficult hole).
Carvell, who shared a five-under-par with Muthiya after Day-Two, played his way up the leader-board way with a run of three birdies from the 13th to the 15th and took to share of second position on 10-under-par.
Carvell had actually gone on the course with Zambia’s Muthiya and when the South African was doing well, the Zambia seemed to lose his cool which messed up his bright start.
Muthiya began the day with two birdies on the first three holes, before going on a role of three bogeys on four holes before pars on the last two holes on the front nine which saw him drop to four under overall.
And when he went out the back nine, he double-bogeyed the 10th but responded strongly on the 13th with an amazing eagle from a long putt that sent his crowd rolling into ecstatic cheers.
