Magical Kenya Open R1

Kenya Open 2021 R1

March 18-21
Karen Country Club, Nairobi, Kenya
€1,000,000
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

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Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Benjamin Hebert birdied the final hole late in the day to steal the first round lead at the Magical Kenya Open presented by Johnnie Walker, the Frenchman carding a seven under par round of 64 to take a one-stroke advantage ahead of a packed leaderboard at Karen Country Club.

“It was a fantastic day. I played very solid all day long. It’s been a long time since it has been like this. We managed the distance control, because it’s very hard here with the wind and altitude. We weren’t too aggressive and a holed some good putts also. It was a good day. 

“In the morning you have to take out ten percent and in the afternoon it’s closer to 15 – that’s what we played. And I think we did pretty well.”

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The 34-year-old is a six-time winner on the Challenge Tour but has yet to claim a maiden European Tour title despite a number of agonisingly close calls, resulting in three runner up finishes during the 2019 Race to Dubai.

Hebert, who has twice played at Karen Country Club during his time on the Challenge Tour, got off to a shaky start in Nairobi as he bogeyed the first – but six birdies, including at the 18th and an eagle at the par five 12th earned him a narrow lead.

“Twelve is a short par five, so you always expect to have at least a birdie. I hit three wood then seven iron, a little bit long and holed a 15-foot putt. It was good but I played well all day, so I’m very happy.”

“My strategy worked well. I didn’t play too aggressive or hit many drivers. In the morning it’ll be a little bit wetter, so maybe we can be more aggressive with the pins, we’ll see tomorrow.”

Kenya Open 2021 R1

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Kenya Open 2021 R1

Seven players shared second place after the opening round on six under par, including Englishman Sam Horsfield – a two-time winner in the 2020 campaign who is making his first start of the 2021 Race to Dubai after returning from a back injury.

“I tore a disc in my back in Cyprus at the end of last year,” said Horsfield. “Then I was just getting treatment and I didn’t feel like I was ready for the Middle East – I picked up a club around the time of the Saudi event. I had a good group today and it was a lot of fun and it’s great to be back competing.”

“It took me a while to get into the round even though I was three under through the first four. I still felt a little different to playing golf at home. The back nine was a little questionable but then I hit a good shot on the front nine and it sort of got me into the flow of the round again.”

Kenya Open 2021 R1

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Pos.	Player	To Par	R1
1	Benjamin Hebert *	-7	64
T2	Calum Hill *	-6	65
T2	Sam Horsfield	-6	65
T2	Raphael Jacquelin	-6	65
T2	Adrian Meronk *	-6	65
T2	Bernd Ritthammer *	-6	65
T2	Kalle Samooja *	-6	65
T2	Connor Syme *	-6	65
T9	Gaganjeet Bhullar *	-5	66
T9	Justin Harding	-5	66
T9	Matthew Southgate *	-5	66
T9	Julian Suri *	-5	66
T9	Dale Whitnell	-5	66
T14	Nino Bertasio	-4	67
T14	Robson Chinhoi *	-4	67
T14	Dave Coupland	-4	67
T14	Rhys Enoch	-4	67
T14	Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez	-4	67
T14	Gregory Havret	-4	67
T14	Scott Hend	-4	67
T14	Garrick Higgo	-4	67
T14	Kurt Kitayama *	-4	67
T14	Søren Kjeldsen	-4	67
T14	Romain Langasque	-4	67
T14	Niklas Lemke	-4	67
T14	Wilco Nienaber *	-4	67
T14	Richie Ramsay *	-4	67
T14	Toby Tree *	-4	67
T14	Justin Walters *	-4	67
T30	Dean Burmester	-3	68
T30	Victor Dubuisson *	-3	68
T30	Oliver Farr *	-3	68
T30	Matt Ford	-3	68
T30	Jean Baptiste Gonnet	-3	68
T30	Gavin Kyle Green *	-3	68
T30	Joachim B. Hansen *	-3	68
T30	David Howell	-3	68
T30	Maximilian Kieffer *	-3	68
T30	Jacques Kruyswijk *	-3	68
T30	Damien Perrier *	-3	68
T30	Robin Roussel	-3	68
T30	Jayden Schaper *	-3	68
T30	Jack Senior *	-3	68
T30	Jordan Smith	-3	68
T30	Johannes Veerman	-3	68
T30	Scott Vincent	-3	68
T30	Lars van Meijel *	-3	68
T48	Marcus Armitage	-2	69
T48	Steven Brown *	-2	69
T48	Jamie Donaldson	-2	69
T48	Ooko Erick Obura *	-2	69
T48	Darren Fichardt	-2	69
T48	Tae Hee Lee *	-2	69
T48	Taimur Malik *	-2	69
T48	Carlos Pigem	-2	69
T48	Benjamin Poke *	-2	69
T48	JC Ritchie	-2	69
T48	Romain Wattel *	-2	69
T48	Darius van Driel *	-2	69
T60	Pep Angles *	-1	70
T60	Louis De Jager	-1	70
T60	Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño *	-1	70
T60	Lorenzo Gagli	-1	70
T60	Julien Guerrier *	-1	70
T60	Daan Huizing	-1	70
T60	Jazz Janewattananond	-1	70
T60	Anthony Juma	-1	70
T60	Francesco Laporta *	-1	70
T60	Joost Luiten *	-1	70
T60	Richard McEvoy *	-1	70
T60	Kyong-Jun Moon	-1	70
T60	Adrian Otaegui	-1	70
T60	Haydn Porteous	-1	70
T60	Aaron Rai	-1	70
T60	Marcel Schneider *	-1	70
T60	Cormac Sharvin *	-1	70
T60	Sebastian Soderberg	-1	70
T60	Oliver Wilson	-1	70
T79	Richard Bland *	E	71
T79	John Catlin *	E	71
T79	Ashley Chesters *	E	71
T79	Aaron Cockerill *	E	71
T79	Ben Evans	E	71
T79	Ewen Ferguson *	E	71
T79	Rikard Karlberg *	E	71
T79	Jose-Filipe Lima	E	71
T79	Guido Migliozzi *	E	71
T79	James Morrison	E	71
T79	Garrick Porteous	E	71
T79	Adrien Saddier *	E	71
T79	Ricardo Santos *	E	71
T79	Matthias Schwab	E	71
T79	Lee Slattery	E	71
T79	Greg Snow	E	71
T79	Joel Stalter *	E	71
T96	Wil Besseling *	1	72
T96	Jonathan Caldwell *	1	72
T96	George Coetzee *	1	72
T96	David Drysdale *	1	72
T96	Jens Fahrbring	1	72
T96	Phillip Kasozi *	1	72
T96	Mathiam Keyser *	1	72
T96	Sihwan Kim *	1	72
T96	David Law	1	72
T96	Ondrej Lieser (a) *	1	72
T96	Richard Mansell (a)	1	72
T96	Simon Ngige Mburu *	1	72
T96	Samuel Njoroge Chege	1	72
T96	Jacob Okello *	1	72
T96	Tapio Pulkkanen *	1	72
T96	Alvaro Quiros	1	72
T96	Kristoffer Reitan *	1	72
T96	Lorenzo Scalise *	1	72
T114	Jorge Campillo	2	73
T114	Alejandro Cañizares *	2	73
T114	Yi Keun Chang	2	73
T114	Oliver Fisher	2	73
T114	Grant Forrest	2	73
T114	Edwin Inana Asuza *	2	73
T114	Liam Johnston	2	73
T114	Anton Karlsson	2	73
T114	Joakim Lagergren	2	73
T114	Hurly Long (a)	2	73
T114	Jastas Madoya Asena *	2	73
T114	Edoardo Molinari	2	73
T114	Matthieu Pavon	2	73
T114	Max Schmitt	2	73
T114	Robin Sciot-Siegrist *	2	73
T114	Shubhankar Sharma *	2	73
T114	Jaydeep Singh Sandhu	2	73
T114	Cj Wangai	2	73
T132	Maverick Antcliff	3	74
T132	SSP Chawrasia	3	74
T132	Emilio Cuartero Blanco	3	74
T132	Nicolai Højgaard	3	74
T132	Victor Joseph	3	74
T132	Masahiro Kawamura	3	74
T132	Alexander Levy *	3	74
T132	Clement Sordet	3	74
T132	Daniel van Tonder *	3	74
T141	Pedro Figueiredo *	4	75
T141	Haotong Li *	4	75
T141	Andrew Oche Odoh	4	75
T141	Isaac Ogolla Makokha *	4	75
T141	Chris Paisley	4	75
T141	David Wakhu	4	75
T147	Lucas Bjerregaard	5	76
T147	Dismas Indiza Anyonyi *	5	76
T147	Paul Musangi Njuguna	5	76
T150	Tyler Koivisto *	6	77
T150	Ross McGowan *	6	77
T150	Gavin Moynihan	6	77
153	Riz Charania *	8	79
154	Mathew Omondi	9	80
155	Adel Balala	10	81
156	Zander Lombard *	11	82
* Player started on the back nine