Fresh from a stellar 4 under par victory at the NCBA Kisii Open Shabana Trophy, amateur John Lejirma was in imperious form with a one-stroke lead in the opening round of the Sunshine Development Tour East Africa Swing’s Q-School at the Great Rift Valley Resort and Golf Club.

The Royal Nairobi Golf Club amateur racked up a scintillating round of 3 under par 68 to restrict Isaiah Otuke and Greg Snow to joint second on -2.

Fourth on minus one was high-flying amateur golfer Michael Karanga, as three pros, Eric Ooko, Njoroge Kibugu and Edwin Mudanyi for fifth on level par.

The opening round witnessed three eagles from Ooko on hole 11, Golf Park’s Tony Omuli on hole 6 and Mike Kisia on hole 1.

Reflecting on his first-round performance, Lejirma highlighted: “I’m just fresh from winning in Kisii where I played a minis 4, so the game plan was to just to continue with the same streak and I’m glad it went well.”

“I believe I’m now playing at my peak point where I want, and literally it can be shown by how I’m playing, I mean, to play under each and every round tells the hard work that someone is putting,” Lejirma added.

Lejirma had a chance of playing a minus 2 in first nine then in the second nine he started off well with birdie-birdie and picked a birdie on hole number 8 to finish with a total minis 3.

Lejirma added: “Generally, for me it’s an honor for such an invite to play in Sunshine Tour Q-School, it’s the biggest moment for me personally. Tomorrow (Tuesday), the essence will be to stick to my game plan, like I said, just getting pars and when birdies come tomorrow, I’ll do better. “

The Q-School, which ends on Thursday, is a four-day event with a Ksh1 million prize purse which will award players with Sunshine Tour cards for the 2025/26 season, with the top ten finishers at the Great Rift event earning invitations to play at the Sunshine Tour Final Stage Qualifier in Johannesburg, South Africa from the 8th to the 11th of April 2025.