Only two Zambia’s made the cut for the final round of this years Zambia Open that ends tomorrow at Ndola Golf Club.
Madalisto Muthiya and Patrick Mwendapole were the only ones from 17 local entries to make the cut for final third round of this years event on the 88-year-old Ndola course.
Muthiya finished level after dropping a shot from 1-Under on Friday to 1-Over on Saturday in 41st place while Mwendapole finished at 1-Under to qualify with a two day total of 1-Over 147.
Meanwhile, South African Neil Schietekat who led from day-one remained firmly on course for his first-ever Zambia Open title after carding a 2-day total of 11-Under 135.
Schietekat finished round 2 at 3-Under, failing to replicate his 1st round 1 score of 65 after a triple bogey on the 7th hole on Saturday.
And another South African Anton Haig lit-up the tournament with a hole-in-one on the 3rd.
Meanwhile, defending champion Tyrone Ferreira rebounded after a poor day-1 on Friday from level to 6-Under 67 today.
2006 and 2007 champion Steve Basson almost qualified after finishing level together with Muthiya.
This is a shame. I would have expected Kelvin Phiri, Steven Mbewe and Mohamed Zulu to make the cut, especially after their good performance at last year’s Open, held at Chainama Hills Golf Club, which is by far a more challenging course than Ndola golf course. Michael Chiluba too missed the cut. Perhaps it is a case of stage fright or he is just not yet ready.