Englishman Benson wins the Barclays Kenya Open in a play off

England’s Seve Benson playing in the second last group, behind the overnight Denmark’s Lasse Jensen, was quietly making his move up the leaderboard in the last round of the Barclays Kenya Open at Muthaiga Sunday.

A 5-under 66 with a birdie on the 18th hole forced a play-off with Jensen who was unaware of what was happening ahead of him.

Both players were 10-under par at the end of 72 holes. As Jensen admitted later, he did not hear the crowds cheer the birdie Benson made – most players were making them so it had become common in the closing hours of the day.

Jensen played safe taking an iron off the tee instead of his driver and was on the green for three, thinking a par would be sufficient for victory.

In the first Kenya Open play-off on the newly designed Muthaiga course, the players returned to the 18th tee, the first play-off hole.

Both players played an iron shot off the tee, with Jensen putting his second shot in the greenside bunker.

Benson aimed for the pin with his second shot landing just off the green. He had a 20ft putt for eagle. Jensen had a long shot out of the bunker and was short, missed his birdie and missed it again for par, leaving Benson with two putts for victory.

South Africa Tyrone Ferreira, last year’s runner-up also climbed up the leaderboard with a 5-under and retained a top three finish tied with Philip Archer from England in third place. Archer is now firmly heading the European Challenge Tour rankings following his victory in Colombia two weeks ago.

Kenya’s Brian Njoroge and Dismas Ndiza were the best placed local professionals tied on 22nd place. Ganeev Giddie has the best round of the city-based players, signing for a 4-under par 67 placing him 26th on 1-under.

Stefan Engell Andersen had a poor finish, finishing 30th tied on level par for the tournament. Nicholas Rokoine finished at 1-over for the tournament, carding a 2-over par in the final round.

Anil Shah played level for the day, 4-over for the tournament in 55th place. All the Kenyans who made the cut however, took home prize money.

But to the rest of the golfing season - three Kenyans have become associate members of the European Challenge tour – Greg Snow, Hardeep Thethy and Stefan Engell Andersen.

The latter has played two events on the tour this year and is ranked 56th.

The top 20 players in the rankings graduate to the main European Tour in 2013.

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