For Muthiya this is just another tournament

Zambia’s Madalitso Muthiya was able to add a 68 yesterday to his brilliant 63 in the first round of the South African Open, and his presence at the top of the leaderboard, just behind Charl Schwartzel, has created plenty of interest at Randpark Golf Club.

The 35-year-old Muthiya has actually been around for a while and has been campaigning on the Sunshine Tour since 2013. And it’s not as if the big stage of a co-sanctioned event is new to him because he played college golf in the United States and has appeared on the Canadian, Nationwide and web.com tours.

He even qualified for the 2006 US Open, becoming the first Black African to play in that Major.

So while he will be a surprise contender for the second oldest national title in golf over the weekend, Muthiya himself was comfortable with the rarefied heights he currently occupies, one behind Schwartzel and one ahead of another Major champion in Louis Oosthuizen on 11-under-par.

“It might be a surprise for some, but for me it feels like it has been quite a long time coming. I expected to play well, I’ve finished first in a US Open sectional qualifier before, been in the final group in Mexico, so I think those are events of the same stature as this. I’m in a good place mentally,” Muthiya said after Friday’s round.

Coming from a country like Zambia, Muthiya was always going to need some lucky breaks in order to become a professional golfer. His first lucky break came when he nicked his father’s clubs to play in the garden and broke a window. Father Peter, a passionate golfer, did not punish the sixyear-old but instead took him to Lusaka Golf Club to begin playing.

By the time he was nine, Muthiya was winning tournaments and, when he was a teenager, Zambian president Fredrick Chiluba arranged for him to play in the Nolan Henke/Patty Berg Junior Masters in Florida. Muthiya won the 1618 age group and was offered a scholarship to the University of New Mexico.