By NDINAWE SIMPELWE –
MADALITSO Muthiya yesterday played level par to maintain his three-under-par after two rounds of the 2016 Zambia Sugar golf Open tournament playing at the Lusaka golf club.
After yesterday’s round, Muthiya was disappointed that he could not add on to his good start to the tournament.
And Cyprion Andrew Georgiou took over the leadership of the Zambia Sugar Open from James Kamte of South Africa after  carding a seven-under-66 on day two.
Muthiya, who went into the second day of the tournament with a three-under-par, made the cut but was disappointed for failing to capitalise on his first day performance.
Muthiya said he knew he could have done better than the three-under which he managed on the first day and have a shot at the title.
“I guess as a whole I felt like I played well and I gave (away) a few shots coming into the stretch, it was a bit disappointing for me knowing the nine under was leading and wanted to be closer to that.
Obviously the tournament starts now, I have two more rounds,” Muthiya said.
He said the urge to win the Zambia open has always been there and this year was not different going into the last two rounds.
“I have always felt like I could win it even in the prior years, but obviously I feel like I’m playing well, well enough to feel that I can or being in contention.
But obviously I can win the tournament in the first two days,” he said.
Muthiya’s undoing was again the seventh hole where he dropped a shot after playing par on the first six holes on the front nine but the Zambian top ranked golfer recovered on the back nine with a birdie and an eagle on the 10th and 14th respectively before he dropped two more shots on the 17th hole with a double bogey.
Zambia’s only other golfer to make the cut was Dayne Moore only survived by a whisker after making the cut with the official cut score of one over.
Moore had a poor day where he started on three under 70 but ended the day on one over after carding a double bogey and a bogey on the front line before managing two birdies and another double bogey and a bogey on the back nine.
Meanwhile, Georgiou who finished the first day on four under took the tournament by storm with an impressive record of eight birdies and one bogey to lead the way in today’s main championship.
First day leader James Kamte dropped one shot to finish on six under while second position fell to CJ du Plessis who finished on nine under while third positions was shared by two golfers Ulrich van den Berg of South Africa and Jack Harrison of England both on eight under par.