The South African Keith Horne shot a scintillating 63 on Saturday to fly through the field and open up a three-shot cushion going into the final round of the Zambia Golf Legends Championship at Bonanza Golf Club outside Lusaka.
He fired 11 birdies in the best round of the week to move to 10-under and take control of the tournament with just one round to play, despite struggling with a foot injury. The top of the leaderboard was extremely tight for much of the second round, but Horne emerged from the pack late in the day.
Starting the day at one-under, he flew out the blocks with four straight birdies. He dropped a shot on the fifth hole before two more red numbers saw him race to the turn in just 31 strokes. He reeled off another three birdies in a row from the 11th and got to nine-under for the day with another at 15.
He made his second bogey of the day at the short par-four 17th after shanking his tee shot and losing his ball. He birdied his second ball to salvage the five, and bounced back in the best possible fashion with a birdie at the par-five 18th to restore his three-shot advantage heading into the final day.
“I’m really chuffed,” said the nine-time Sunshine Tour winner. “I haven’t played in Africa for such a long time. I really enjoy the kikuyu grass and everything, so I came with high expectations. I like the golf course and I managed to take advantage of it today, which was great.
“I had a goal in mind today to try and get really low, because I felt good, and I thought the only way to do that is to get off to a flier. I got my mindset right and really wanted to try and push and go as low as possible today. And the birdies kept flowing.”
Horne hobbled around the pro-am on Thursday after a long-standing foot issue resurfaced, but he’s been able to manage it successfully during the tournament rounds: “I’ve been suffering from a Morton’s neuroma for a couple of years, but I had cortisone about a year-and-a-half ago, and I thought that was the end of that. But it came back with a vengeance last week. I might have to have surgery, but if I take my anti-inflammatories, it doesn’t bother me, so I’ll be fine tomorrow.
“I think I need to get off to a fast start again tomorrow. You know, three shots is nothing out there, so I’m going to try and get off to a really fast start again, really focus on those first five or six holes, and we’ll take it from there.”
It’s a tight leaderboard below Horne, and should he falter, there are 21 players within five shots of second place. With Bonanza Golf Club offering plenty of birdie and eagle opportunities, as well as water lurking to catch the players out, it’s set to be a dramatic finale to the Legends Tour’s first ever visit to Zambia.
There’s a three-way tie for second on seven-under. Major champion Michael Campbell had two birdies and two bogeys on the front nine, and he finished strongly with birdies on 13, 15 and 18 to sign for a 69.
Adilson da Silva is fourth in the MCB Road to Mauritius and already has a win to his name this season at the OFX Irish Legends. The two-time Zambia Open champion had five birdies in his last seven holes to leave him handily placed as he looks to complete a Zambian hat-trick.
Completing the trio in tied-second, Dismas Indiza Anyonyi is flying the flag for Kenya. He added a 69 to his opening 68 to give himself a realistic chance of a dream victory on his Legends Tour debut.
