Gandas opens with a round 71 in Kenya, Sharma trails back

Mostert, who won the Nelson Mandela Bay Championship on the European Challenge Tour just a fortnight ago, set the early pace at Muthaiga Golf Club as the South African carded eight birdies and one bogey.Gandas, who earned a passage into the DP World Tour after topping the PGTI Order of Merit with six wins in 2022, has been slowly finding his feet on the Tour, where he is playing for the first full season.

India's Manu Gandas had a fine start and an equally bright finish, but bogeys in between meant he carded a one-under 70 to lie Tied-50th after the first round of the Magical Kenya Open on the DP World Tour.

The 26-year-old Shubhankar Sharma, who is of the same age as Gandas but is senior in terms of experience on the DP World Tour, had a rough day with a card of two-over 73 at the USD 2 million event. He was tied 109 and will need a low round to make the cut.

John Catlin and Dylan Mostert shared the first round lead after carding seven-under 64 each. Mostert, who won the Nelson Mandela Bay Championship on the European Challenge Tour just a fortnight ago, set the early pace at Muthaiga Golf Club as the South African carded eight birdies and one bogey.

Gandas, who earned a passage into the DP World Tour after topping the PGTI Order of Merit with six wins in 2022, has been slowly finding his feet on the Tour, where he is playing for the first full season. He had creditable finishes at the Thailand Classic (T-28) and the Hero Indian Open (T-32).

Sharma, who opened the season with a tied seventh finish at Abu Dhabi, has since then also finished in Top-15 at the Indian Open. In the first round of the Kenya Open, Sharma had an eagle, one birdie and five bogeys as he struggled with various parts of his game.

Three-time DP World Tour winner Catlin raced out of the blocks, making the turn at six-under par, needing just 29 shots, with four birdies and an eagle at the par five 18th, his ninth hole. The American finished his round with eight pars and a fifth birdie of the day at the par four sixth to join Mostert at the top of the leaderboard.

Placed at six-under par are Wil Besseling of the Netherlands, and Frenchman Pierre Pineau on six under par. Sharing fifth place on five-under are Germany’s Nick Bachem, Gavin Green of Malaysia, South African Casey Jarvis, Englishman Tom Murray and Spaniard Borja Virto.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)