• ZAMBIA’S Madalitso Muthiya blasts out of the rough at the par-five 13th hole after his second shot went wide off the fairway during the third round of the Zambia Sugar Open Championship at Lusaka Golf Club yesterday. Picture by SHAMAOMA MUSONDA

By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA At Lusaka Golf Club –
SOUTH Africans Vaughn Groenewald and Andrew Georgiou maintained their lead at the R1.5 million-rich Zambia Sugar Open Golf Tournament as Welshman Rhys Enoch, the third joint-leader after Day-Two, dropped a position in the tournament that ends today.
Groenewald and Georgiou yesterday scored just a mere two-under-par 71 to bring their three round total to 15-under-par 204 and are just a shot better than Enoch while another South African pair is a further shot off on 13-under-par.
On a day characterised by low scores in sharp contrast to the previous round, Groenewald needed a birdie each on the closing two holes to level with Georgiou who parried his last four holes.
Welshman Enoch, who was joint leader after two rounds, had an eventful day on the course as he finished with a one-under-par 72 on the day broken down to five bogeys and six birdies, which took him to 14-under-par 205 and standing alone in third.
While the leading pair of Groenewald and Georgiou were happy to still maintain leadership, the talk at the Lusaka Club House was on how low the professionals scored in round three, just a day after flirting with the course record.
The day’s best score came from Haydn Porteous and Danie van Tonder who carded six-under-par 67 with this score getting the former into joint fourth position with Dean Burmester on 13-under-par 206 and Van Tonder  staying a shot behind and now has 12-under-par 207.
Defending champion Lyle Rowe was in joint 22nd position with an overall five-under-par score which was helped by his one-under-par 72 yesterday.
The best placed former champion was Justin Harding who was on 10-under-par with Tyrone Ferreira on six-under-par, just a shot better than Serbian Nemanja Savic, who is a Lusaka Golf Club member.
None of the four Zambian hopefuls still in the tournament managed to score below this course`s par-73 with the biggest casualty being United Kingdom based Cosmos Mufaya, who played eight-over-par 81 to now be on seven-over-par 226 and at the base of the leaderboard.
The only surviving amateur in the tournament Abhinav Walia shot four-over-par which left him disappointed after two impressive days that helped him barely beat the cut.
He barely beat the cut that was set at par and his score yesterday took him to four-under-par 223.
“I did not play as I wanted but that’s golf, I will get the scores down on the last round. At this course, I have played six-under-par so many times and I hope to do that again,” he said.
The best performer from the Zambian quartet was Madalitso Muthiya who played one-over-par yesterday to get to an overall of three-under-par 216 score.
“It was just a bad day I never hit my shots quite well and kept going into the rough, hit the trees and also landed in the banker. It just never clicked for me and having struggled so badly and getting a one-over is not bad,” said Muthiya, who is today hoping for an improved showing.
Dayne Moore, who was the second best placed Zambian after two-rounds on three-under overall, still kept his position but this was after he dropped three shots (six bogeys and three birdies) to stay on 219-par.