Magical Kenya Open R3

Kenya Open 2021 R3

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

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Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

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Justin Harding is in pole position for a second European Tour title as the South African carries a two-stroke lead into the final round of the Magical Kenya Open presented by Johnnie Walker, courtesy of a seven under par third round 64 at Karen Country Club.

Kenya Open 2021 R3

“I played pretty good to be fair. I hit it solidly the first 12 holes and managed to make a couple of putts. I holed a wedge on ten which was an added bonus. Then after that I had my usual struggles on the 13th through the 17th and managed to roll in a good putt on the 18th to give myself a bit of an extra boost.”

The 34-year-old won his maiden title almost exactly two years ago at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, which continued a remarkable rise up the Official World Golf Ranking – peaking at 42nd in May of 2019.

Kenya Open 2021 R3

Included in that strong run of form was a share of runner-up spot at the 2019 Magical Kenya Open, and the 34-year-old will be hoping to go one better at Karen as he looks to build on his 16 under par total.

“I’ll give it my best effort. The golf course lends itself to a bunch of birdies. If you execute your golf shots and roll in a couple of putts you can certainly post a score. As you can see today, there are a couple of guys that went really deep.”

Kenya Open 2021 R3

“It’s just a matter of really taking advantage of the par fives and a couple of the driveable par fours and at the end of the day just being one shot better than the next guy. You’ve got to play it hole by hole. Two shots ahead, you’ll probably find that by the time I tee off I’m not going to be leading. It’s just going to be a matter of executing plans and trying to get over the line.” 

Three players shared second spot on 14 under, with Johannes Veerman carding a flawless course-record 62 which comprised nine birdies. He was joined by his American compatriot Kurt Kitayama – who recovered from a tough spot at the seventh as his ball embedded in a sponsor board, eventually signing for a 66 – and Australia’s Scott Hend, who carded a 68. Scotland’s Callum Hill was a stroke further back on 13 under after a four under 67.

Kenya Open 2021 R3

“I’ve been hitting it well all week so I just knew that if I could get it right on the putting greens that I could score a low one today,” said Veerman.

“This course is tough but if you hit it well there’s a lot of birdies you can make – some driveable par fours, all the par fives are reachable – if you can get the flat stick rolling you can go deep. Yesterday I spent a lot of time just grooving my stroke down, trying to get the speed right and trying to get it down.”

“I’ll just kind of keep the process going, I’m hitting it well, I’m putting it well now and for the most part, just keep it all in check. Do my post-round practice and then go for it again.”

Kenya Open 2021 R3

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Pos.	Player	To Par	R1	R2	R3	Total
1	Justin Harding	-16	66	67	64	197
T2	Scott Hend	-14	67	64	68	199
T2	Kurt Kitayama	-14	67	66	66	199
T2	Johannes Veerman	-14	68	69	62	199
5	Calum Hill	-13	65	68	67	200
6	Jean Baptiste Gonnet	-11	68	68	66	202
T7	Dean Burmester	-10	68	64	71	203
T7	Garrick Higgo	-10	67	68	68	203
T7	Guido Migliozzi	-10	71	65	67	203
T7	Bernd Ritthammer	-10	65	71	67	203
T7	Kalle Samooja	-10	65	66	72	203
T7	Jayden Schaper	-10	68	70	65	203
T7	Connor Syme	-10	65	67	71	203
T14	Pep Angles	-9	70	67	67	204
T14	Romain Langasque	-9	67	70	67	204
T14	Dale Whitnell	-9	66	70	68	204
T17	Nino Bertasio	-8	67	69	69	205
T17	Jamie Donaldson	-8	69	67	69	205
T17	Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez	-8	67	70	68	205
T17	Gavin Kyle Green	-8	68	69	68	205
T17	Sam Horsfield	-8	65	71	69	205
T17	Jacques Kruyswijk *	-8	68	72	65	205
T17	Francesco Laporta	-8	70	67	68	205
T17	Richard McEvoy *	-8	70	70	65	205
T17	Adrian Meronk *	-8	65	73	67	205
T17	Adrian Otaegui	-8	70	67	68	205
T17	Ricardo Santos	-8	71	66	68	205
T28	Ashley Chesters *	-7	71	68	67	206
T28	Louis De Jager *	-7	70	70	66	206
T28	Victor Dubuisson	-7	68	68	70	206
T28	Darren Fichardt *	-7	69	70	67	206
T28	Joachim B. Hansen	-7	68	69	69	206
T28	Raphael Jacquelin	-7	65	68	73	206
T28	Niklas Lemke *	-7	67	71	68	206
T28	Joost Luiten *	-7	70	69	67	206
T28	Garrick Porteous *	-7	71	68	67	206
T28	Justin Walters *	-7	67	71	68	206
T28	Lars van Meijel	-7	68	69	69	206
T39	Gaganjeet Bhullar *	-6	66	72	69	207
T39	George Coetzee	-6	72	66	69	207
T39	Grant Forrest *	-6	73	66	68	207
T39	Søren Kjeldsen	-6	67	69	71	207
T39	Wilco Nienaber	-6	67	69	71	207
T39	Aaron Rai	-6	70	67	70	207
T39	Jack Senior	-6	68	68	71	207
T39	Jordan Smith *	-6	68	70	69	207
T47	Jens Fahrbring *	-5	72	67	69	208
T47	Benjamin Poke *	-5	69	70	69	208
T47	JC Ritchie *	-5	69	70	69	208
T47	Lorenzo Scalise *	-5	72	68	68	208
T47	Marcel Schneider *	-5	70	69	69	208
T52	John Catlin *	-4	71	69	69	209
T52	Aaron Cockerill *	-4	71	69	69	209
T52	Rikard Karlberg *	-4	71	68	70	209
T52	Maximilian Kieffer *	-4	68	72	69	209
T52	Richie Ramsay	-4	67	65	77	209
T52	Matthias Schwab	-4	71	66	72	209
T52	Toby Tree *	-4	67	73	69	209
T52	Oliver Wilson	-4	70	67	72	209
T60	Ben Evans *	-3	71	68	71	210
T60	Matt Ford *	-3	68	72	70	210
T60	Julien Guerrier *	-3	70	70	70	210
T60	Kyong-Jun Moon *	-3	70	69	71	210
T60	Matthew Southgate	-3	66	69	75	210
T60	Scott Vincent *	-3	68	71	71	210
T66	Richard Bland *	-2	71	69	71	211
T66	Lorenzo Gagli *	-2	70	70	71	211
T66	Gregory Havret *	-2	67	73	71	211
T66	Benjamin Hebert	-2	64	72	75	211
T66	Ondrej Lieser (a) *	-2	72	68	71	211
T66	Robin Sciot-Siegrist *	-2	73	66	72	211
T66	Darius van Driel *	-2	69	71	71	211
73	Romain Wattel *	-1	69	71	72	212
74	Damien Perrier *	E	68	71	74	213
75	Samuel Njoroge Chege *	1	72	68	74	214
T76	Haydn Porteous *	2	70	70	75	215
T76	Lee Slattery *	2	71	69	75	215
CUT	Wil Besseling	-1	72	69		141
CUT	Jorge Campillo	-1	73	68		141
CUT	Dave Coupland	-1	67	74		141
CUT	Emilio Cuartero Blanco	-1	74	67		141
CUT	Ooko Erick Obura	-1	69	72		141
CUT	Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño	-1	70	71		141
CUT	Daan Huizing	-1	70	71		141
CUT	Jazz Janewattananond	-1	70	71		141
CUT	Alexander Levy	-1	74	67		141
CUT	Jose-Filipe Lima	-1	71	70		141
CUT	Carlos Pigem	-1	69	72		141
CUT	Kristoffer Reitan	-1	72	69		141
CUT	Max Schmitt	-1	73	68		141
CUT	Sebastian Soderberg	-1	70	71		141
CUT	Daniel van Tonder	-1	74	67		141
CUT	Marcus Armitage	E	69	73		142
CUT	Steven Brown	E	69	73		142
CUT	Robson Chinhoi	E	67	75		142
CUT	David Drysdale	E	72	70		142
CUT	Anthony Juma	E	70	72		142
CUT	Masahiro Kawamura	E	74	68		142
CUT	David Law	E	72	70		142
CUT	Tae Hee Lee	E	69	73		142
CUT	Edoardo Molinari	E	73	69		142
CUT	James Morrison	E	71	71		142
CUT	Chris Paisley	E	75	67		142
CUT	Matthieu Pavon	E	73	69		142
CUT	Cormac Sharvin	E	70	72		142
CUT	David Wakhu	E	75	67		142
CUT	Sihwan Kim	1	72	71		143
CUT	Taimur Malik	1	69	74		143
CUT	Richard Mansell (a)	1	72	71		143
CUT	Tapio Pulkkanen	1	72	71		143
CUT	Shubhankar Sharma	1	73	70		143
CUT	Julian Suri	1	66	77		143
CUT	Maverick Antcliff	2	74	70		144
CUT	Jonathan Caldwell	2	72	72		144
CUT	Rhys Enoch	2	67	77		144
CUT	Oliver Farr	2	68	76		144
CUT	Ewen Ferguson	2	71	73		144
CUT	David Howell	2	68	76		144
CUT	Liam Johnston	2	73	71		144
CUT	Hurly Long (a)	2	73	71		144
CUT	Simon Ngige Mburu	2	72	72		144
CUT	Alvaro Quiros	2	72	72		144
CUT	Greg Snow	2	71	73		144
CUT	Clement Sordet	2	74	70		144
CUT	Joel Stalter	2	71	73		144
CUT	Alejandro Cañizares	3	73	72		145
CUT	Yi Keun Chang	3	73	72		145
CUT	Tyler Koivisto	3	77	68		145
CUT	Robin Roussel	3	68	77		145
CUT	Adrien Saddier	3	71	74		145
CUT	SSP Chawrasia	4	74	72		146
CUT	Nicolai Højgaard	4	74	72		146
CUT	Dismas Indiza Anyonyi	4	76	70		146
CUT	Anton Karlsson	4	73	73		146
CUT	Joakim Lagergren	4	73	73		146
CUT	Cj Wangai	4	73	73		146
CUT	Mathiam Keyser	5	72	75		147
CUT	Ross McGowan	5	77	70		147
CUT	Jaydeep Singh Sandhu	5	73	74		147
CUT	Lucas Bjerregaard	6	76	72		148
CUT	Oliver Fisher	6	73	75		148
CUT	Edwin Inana Asuza	6	73	75		148
CUT	Jastas Madoya Asena	6	73	75		148
CUT	Jacob Okello	6	72	76		148
CUT	Pedro Figueiredo	7	75	74		149
CUT	Andrew Oche Odoh	7	75	74		149
CUT	Phillip Kasozi	9	72	79		151
CUT	Gavin Moynihan	10	77	75		152
CUT	Isaac Ogolla Makokha	10	75	77		152
CUT	Victor Joseph	11	74	79		153
CUT	Paul Musangi Njuguna	12	76	78		154
CUT	Riz Charania	13	79	76		155
CUT	Mathew Omondi	13	80	75		155
CUT	Adel Balala	14	81	75		156
WD	Haotong Li	5	75	5		80
WD	Zander Lombard	11	82			82
* Player started on the back nine