.Muthiya

By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –

ZAMBIA’S Madalitso Muthiya shot a blistering six under-par 66 to lead the Vodacom Origins of Golf tournament presented by Samsung at the Pezula Estate and Spa in South Africa.
On a day that was characterised by fog, which forced the tournament to start more than two hours late, the Lusaka golfer produced one of the cleanest golfing cards of his career which had no bogey on it.
Instead, it had six birdies and 12 pars, a score that put him into joint leadership of the R600, 000 tournament, which has some renowned names like Tyrone Ferreira, Ulrich van der Berg and Lyle Rowe, the 2014 Zambia Sugar Open champion.
With the cut point being one-under-par, Muthiya evenly distributed his birdies between the front nine and back nine.
After three straight pars, Muthiya birdied the fourth hole, repeated that on the seventh which was also a par-four and crowned that with another birdie on the par-five ninth.
He made full use of the two par-five holes on the back nine (13th and 18th) by sinking birdies on both and added one more on the 16th to enjoy a good day of golf.
“I played very well out there. I was very consistent, and I hit about three of my wedge shots very close – maybe none as close as I did on 18,” he added of his final approach of the day which ended up with a birdie.
“And when I missed the greens a couple of times, I got up and down. It was unfortunate that a few putts didn’t go in, but all in all, I’ll take it,” he told Michael Green from Sunshine Tour media.
Muthiya has this year been consistent by making the cut on the Sunshine Tour circuit though he insists that making the cut is far below his target and wants to begin picking up titles.
He shared the top slot with three other South Africans in Jacques Blaauw, Shaun Norris and former Zambia Open winner, Doug McGuigan.
These four players were one stroke better than another set of four players – three South Africans in Steven Ferreira, Keith Horne and Jean Hugo and Torben Baumann of Germany.
Christiaan Basson and Heinrich Bruiners were sitting two shots off the pace on four under-par-68 after round one.