By SAMUEL LUKHANDA –
ZAMBIA’S golf star Madalitso Muthiya yesterday opened his maiden appearance in the BMW South Africa Open Championship at Glendower Golf Club in Ekurhuleni with a disappointing two-over-par 74, nine strokes behind Day-One leader, Jaco Van Zyl.
Muthiya made a false start to his campaign by birding on hole number two but went on to drop shots on five consecutive holes before hitting another birdie on the eighth, finishing the front nine on three over.
The Lusaka golfer had relatively fair performance on the back nine where he managed a birdie and did not drop a single shot.
He was tied at two-over 74 with 24 other players which included the two time Zambia Open winner  Brazilian Adilson Da Silva.
The Zambian was drawn with the European pair of Swedish Jens Fahring and Cyprus Andrew Georgiou in the first round.
He returns to the Glendower Golf course today for the second round but needs to play better in order to make the cut.
Muthiya has had a good run of form on the Sunshine Tour late last year shooting eight-under par at Sun Sibaya Challenge and Vodacom origins of Golf.
He also had good outings at Alfred Dunhill Championship and Netbank Affinity Cup as South Africa has proved to be a good hunting ground for him.
But his big pay cheque came in Mauritius when he won the 2015 AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open followed by the 2015 Uganda Open in Kampala Kenya.
The R15, 000,000 BMW SA Open that started yesterday January 7, 2016 is ending  on Sunday the 10th.