Benjamin Hébert fired a bogey-free, 8-under 63 starting with an eagle at the par-5 10th to take a share of the lead on Thursday at the Magical Kenya Open presented by absa.
“I’m very pleased. Playing this course in the afternoon is very hard,” said the Frenchman. The greens are hard, fairways very firm, so it’s hard to reach the area where you want to go.
“I’m very happy, it’s one of those days where everything went my way.
“Starting with an eagle on ten, it helps me to kick off the day well. The good feeling continued all day long.”
England’s John Parry also started from the 10th and closed with a bogey-free 63 for his share of the lead.
“Even though I’ve had a bad few weeks in the Middle East, I haven’t panicked,” said Parry.
“Just keep doing the same things that worked last year and hopefully they’ll keep working for the rest of the year. I think if I keep doing that the results will come.”
South Africa’s Jayden Schaper lies in third place at 7-under having carded a bogey-free 64.
Denmark’s Jacob Skov Olesen made an eagle at the par-5 7th and closed with a bogey-free 65 for a share of fourth place at 6-under alongside South Korean Wooyoung Cho who produced eight birdies and two bogeys.
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| Pos. | Player | To Par | R1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PARRY, John | -8 | 63 |
| | HEBERT, Benjamin | -8 | 63 |
| 3 | SCHAPER, Jayden | -7 | 64 |
| 4 | OLESEN, Jacob Skov | -6 | 65 |
| | CHO, Wooyoung | -6 | 65 |
| 6 | REITAN, Kristoffer | -5 | 66 |
| | RUTHERFORD, Jamie | -5 | 66 |
| | BLOMSTRAND, Christofer | -5 | 66 |
| | SADDIER, Adrien | -5 | 66 |
| 10 | REBULA, Jovan | -4 | 67 |
| MORRISON, James | -4 | 67 | |
| | SIEM, Marcel | -4 | 67 |
| | MOSCATEL, Joel | -4 | 67 |
| | HUIZING, Daan | -4 | 67 |
| | AYORA, Angel | -4 | 67 |
| | SCHOTT, Freddy | -4 | 67 |
| | GOUVEIA, Ricardo | -4 | 67 |
| | NEMECZ, Lukas | -4 | 67 |
| | PARATORE, Renato | -4 | 67 |
| 20 | PULKKANEN, Tapio | -3 | 68 |
| | FRANCES, Alexander George | -3 | 68 |
| | GAVINS, Daniel | -3 | 68 |
| | ALBERTSE, Louis | -3 | 68 |
| | ELVIRA, Nacho | -3 | 68 |
| | ARNAUS, Adri | -3 | 68 |
| DE LEO, Gregorio | -3 | 68 | |
| | GERMISHUYS, Deon | -3 | 68 |
| | LEVY, Alexander | -3 | 68 |
| | DANTORP, Jens | -3 | 68 |
| | OTAEGUI, Adrian | -3 | 68 |
| | FORREST, Grant | -3 | 68 |
| | KINHULT, Marcus | -3 | 68 |
| 33 | ELVIRA, Manuel | -2 | 69 |
| | BONETA, Albert | -2 | 69 |
| | CHARANIA, Riz | -2 | 69 |
| | VAN DRIEL, Darius | -2 | 69 |
| | CHACARRA, Eugenio | -2 | 69 |
| | VAN VELZEN, Ryan | -2 | 69 |
| | DE BRUYN, Jannik | -2 | 69 |
| | FOLLETT-SMITH, Benjamin | -2 | 69 |
| | JIN, Zihao | -2 | 69 |
| | KRUYSWIJK, Jacques | -2 | 69 |
| | GUMBERG, Jordan | -2 | 69 |
| | SCHMIDT, Ben | -2 | 69 |
| 45 | NDUVA, Daniel | -1 | 70 |
| | JARVIS, Casey | -1 | 70 |
| | WINTHER, Jeff | -1 | 70 |
| | ROBINSON THOMPSON, Brandon | -1 | 70 |
| | CANTERO, Ivan | -1 | 70 |
| | SORDET, Clément | -1 | 70 |
| SOUTHGATE, Matthew | -1 | 70 | |
| | JOHNSTON, Ryggs | -1 | 70 |
| | COCKERILL, Aaron | -1 | 70 |
| | CROCKER, Sean | -1 | 70 |
| | WHITNELL, Dale | -1 | 70 |
| | WILLIAMS, Robin | -1 | 70 |
| | KO, Jeong weon | -1 | 70 |
| | TETAK, Tadeáš | -1 | 70 |
| | KOBORI, Kazuma | -1 | 70 |
| | PEPPERELL, Eddie | -1 | 70 |
| | PENGE, Marco | -1 | 70 |
| | SÖDERBERG, Sebastian | -1 | 70 |
| | HIDALGO, Angel | -1 | 70 |
| | AHLAWAT, Veer | -1 | 70 |
| 65 | ERICKSON, Dan | Par | 71 |
| | GREEN, Gavin | Par | 71 |
| | DING, Wenyi | Par | 71 |
| | SHAUN, Corey | Par | 71 |
| | TARRIO, Santiago | Par | 71 |
| | SYME, Connor | Par | 71 |
| | HUTSBY, Sam | Par | 71 |
| | SCHNEIDER, Marcel | Par | 71 |
| | BERRY, Joshua | Par | 71 |
| | GIRRBACH, Joel | Par | 71 |
| | SHARMA, Shubhankar | Par | 71 |
| | LEMKE, Niklas | Par | 71 |
| | COUVRA, Martin | Par | 71 |
| | CAMPILLO, Jorge | Par | 71 |
| | MIGLIOZZI, Guido | Par | 71 |
| | LINDBERG, Mikael | Par | 71 |
| | WU, Ashun | Par | 71 |
| | KIM, MK | Par | 71 |
| | LUITEN, Joost | Par | 71 |
| 84 | GALE, Daniel | +1 | 72 |
| | SENIOR, Jack | +1 | 72 |
| | STERNE, Richard | +1 | 72 |
| | MERRITT, Troy | +1 | 72 |
| | GARCIA-HEREDIA, Alfredo | +1 | 72 |
| | SCHWAB, Matthias | +1 | 72 |
| | YOUNG, Daniel | +1 | 72 |
| | FAHRBRING, Jens | +1 | 72 |
| | BJERREGAARD, Lucas | +1 | 72 |
| | BRYANT, Davis | +1 | 72 |
| | HILL, Calum | +1 | 72 |
| | PAVAN, Andrea | +1 | 72 |
| | AMAT, Bastien | +1 | 72 |
| | DEAN, Joe | +1 | 72 |
| | LI, Haotong | +1 | 72 |
| | WIESBERGER, Bernd | +1 | 72 |
| | KARANGA, Michael (AM) | +1 | 72 |
| 101 | CELLI, Filippo | +2 | 73 |
| | KIBUGU, Mutahi | +2 | 73 |
| | PINEAU, Pierre | +2 | 73 |
| | VON DELLINGSHAUSEN, Nicolai | +2 | 73 |
| | SNOW, Greg | +2 | 73 |
| | LAGERGREN, Joakim | +2 | 73 |
| | BEKIRIAN, Jean | +2 | 73 |
| | COLETTA, Brett | +2 | 73 |
| | DE JAGER, Louis | +2 | 73 |
| | NIENABER, Wilco | +2 | 73 |
| | DONALDSON, Jamie | +2 | 73 |
| | BRUN, Julien | +2 | 73 |
| 113 | OBURA, Ooko Erick | +3 | 74 |
| | AIKEN, Thomas | +3 | 74 |
| | CHRISTENSEN, Tiger | +3 | 74 |
| | BROWN, Hamish | +3 | 74 |
| | HARISH, Shashwat (AM) | +3 | 74 |
| | PURCELL, Conor | +3 | 74 |
| | GARCIA, Sebastian | +3 | 74 |
| | LAW, David | +3 | 74 |
| | TARREN, Callum | +3 | 74 |
| 122 | NJOGU, Simon | +4 | 75 |
| | KIEFFER, Maximilian | +4 | 75 |
| | INDIZA ANYONYI, Dismas | +4 | 75 |
| | MUDANYI, Edwin | +4 | 75 |
| | VAN MEIJEL, Lars | +4 | 75 |
| | LEJIRMA, John (AM) | +4 | 75 |
| | SCHIETEKAT, Neil | +4 | 75 |
| | LIST, Danny | +4 | 75 |
| | MEDIRATTA, Mohit | +4 | 75 |
| | WAKHU, David | +4 | 75 |
| | HORSEY, David | +4 | 75 |
| | HARDING, Justin | +4 | 75 |
| | LINDELL, Oliver | +4 | 75 |
| | ARMITAGE, Marcus | +4 | 75 |
| 136 | MCELROY, Dermot | +5 | 76 |
| | IWATA, Hiroshi | +5 | 76 |
| | BALALA, Adel Taufiq (AM) | +5 | 76 |
| | KIBUGU, Njoroge | +5 | 76 |
| 140 | OLAPADE, Sunday | +6 | 77 |
| | DEUS, Willy | +6 | 77 |
| | NJOROGE, Samuel | +6 | 77 |
| | WU, Brandon | +6 | 77 |
| 144 | HALVORSEN, Andreas | +7 | 78 |
| 145 | KRISTENSEN, Nicolai | +8 | 79 |
| 146 | ÅKESSON, Björn | +9 | 80 |
| 147 | CWINYAAI, Joseph (AM) | +10 | 81 |
| 148 | NANDWA, Alfred | +11 | 82 |
| | ODEK, William (AM) | +11 | 82 |
| 150 | CHIDALE, Paul | +14 | 85 |
Simon Bale
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