• Muthiya weighs up his shot before going for a putt on the ninth hole during yesterday’s opening round of the 2016 Zambia Sugar golf Open at the Lusaka golf club. (Right) South African Merrck Brenmer tees up before birding. Picture by GWEN CHIPASULA

By NDINAWE SIMPELWE –

MADALITSO Muthiya and Dayne Moore started the 2016 Zambia Sugar Open golf championship on a bright note with both finishing Day-One on three-under-70.
And South African James Kamte took a first day lead after carding a seven-under-par 66.
Muthiya and Moore will lead the Zambian contingent going into today’s second round ahead of the cut later in the day after a promising start yesterday.
Muthiya and Moore’s score earned them a shared 13th position, but were four shots behind the leader Kamte.
South Africans Teaghan Gauche and Ulrich van den Berg were just one shot behind Kamte on a day most golfers struggled due to windy conditions.
“On the second-nine, you can score better because of the four par-fives, where you can make a lot of birdies and eagles. So to shoot two-under on the front nine and five-under the back nine, I was quite happy,” Kamte said.
Following behind on five-under-68 were three players who included South Africans Allan Versfeld and Morne Buys as well as Englishman Jack Harrison on five-under.
In an interview after the round, Muthiya was happy with his performance, saying he would remain focused and not get carried away.
He admitted that he was playing with a bit of pressure knowing that the whole country was counting on him to win the tournament.
“Golf is a kind of game you can’t predict, but the only thing I can promise is to give my best, come back here and try to shoot a better score than today (yesterday).
“I feel I have been playing well throughout the year and coming into this tournament I feel my chances of playing well are high,” Muthiya said.
Muthiya, who teed-off on the back nine, started brightly carding a birdie on the 11th hole before following it up with an eagle on the 13th and maintained a two-under until the 18th hole where he picked up another shot to finish on three under going into the front nine.
On the front nine, Muthiya again carded a birdie on the second hole to rash into an impressive five-under, which he maintained up to the last three holes where he dropped a shot on two of them including on the last hole to end the first day on three-under-70.
Ndola golfer Moore finished the front nine on par before carding two birdies, one eagle and a bogey on the back nine to earn a three-under 70.
Other Zambians who had a good day include Patrick Mwendapole with one-under-72, while amateur Aaron Simfukwe brought home a one over-par-74, but it was a bad day for Michael Chiluba and Cosmas Mufaya who carded four-over-77 and five-over-78 respectively.
The tournament enters the second day today where the cut  will be made.