Nairobi (Kenya): Manu Gandas moved past the cut, while Shubhankar Sharma fell by the wayside at the Magical Kenya Open.
Gandas, who has now been showing decent form after missing the cut in his initial starts on the DP World Tour, added an even-par 71 in the second round to get to 1-under 141 for 36 holes and move into the money rounds.
He was lying 64th with two more rounds left to make up and move up on the leaderboard.
Shubhankar, after some good results including a top-10 finish in Abu Dhabi and Indian Open, exited early with rounds of 73 and 70.
Nacho Elvira takes a one-stroke lead into the final rounds after eagling the final hole to cap a six-under-par round of 65. Elvira, with rounds of 67-65, is now 10-under and holds a one-shot lead over three players tied for second.
Manu was in the last group from the 10th tee in the second round. He started with a birdie on the 10th but dropped a double bogey on Par-5 12th. However, he quickly recovered with birdies on 14th and 18th to turn in 1-under 34. On his second nine, the front side of the Muthaiga Golf Club, Manu dropped shots on second and third. He recovered partially with a birdie on sixth for even par 71.
Sharma had a roller-coaster ride. Starting on the 10th, he opened with an eagle on Par-5 tenth hole. After that, he had five birdies, two bogeys and two double bogeys as he closed with a 70 and his total of 144 was two shots off the cutline.
Behind leader Elvira are three players — Germany’s Nick Bachem, South African Jayden Schaper and Ryo Hisatsune of Japan. Hisatsune carded the lowest round of the day as he signed for an eight-under-par 63.
Three-time DP World Tour winner John Catlin shares fifth place with Masahiro Kawamura of Japan and Spain’s Borja Virto.
Elvira started the day three strokes off the lead and fell further behind after a bogey on the fourth hole. But the 36-year-old, whose sole DP World Tour victory came at the 2021 Cazoo Open, recovered with two birdies before the turn on the seventh and eighth holes.
He carded his third birdie of the day on the 10th and then recorded five successive pars before finishing birdie-birdie-eagle to card a 10-under-par total, sitting one stroke ahead of a trio of golfers on nine under.
PTI
