[1]As many as five golfers occupied the joint top position after the first round of the PGTI Players Championship at the Golden Greens Golf & Country Club in Gurgaon on Tuesday.
Delhi’s Rashid Khan, Abhishek Jha of Bengaluru, Chandigarh’s Harmeet Kahlon, Kolkata’s Divyanshu Bajaj and Australia-based Indian Kunal Bhasin shot identical scores of five-under-67 to share the top spot in the leaderboard.
Jha, who began with seven pars, hit birdies on the eighth and ninth hole. His birdies on the 12th and 14th took him to four-under for the day. His nine-iron approach shot ended up just two feet from the hole on the 12th. The golfer’s only bogey of the day came on the 16th even as he wrapped up the day with birdie-birdie on the 17th and 18th.
“My hitting was brilliant today. I landed it within a couple of feet of the pin on two occasions. I also sank a 12-footer for a birdie on the 17th. I made some good chip-putts today to pick up strokes on the ninth, 14th and 18th. It was not windy today and I made good use of the favourable conditions,” Jha said at the end of day’s play.
Bhasin — who had a flawless round — was off to a splendid start on the 10th hole as he sank a 14-foot putt for his first birdie of the day. He followed it up with another birdie on the 11th where he landed it within eight feet and converted the putt. Bhasin capitalised on his good start by knocking down a 12-feet birdie putts on the 13th and making a chip-putt for birdie on the 18th.
“I’ve been working on my chipping and putting recently and the results are showing. The opening round has provided me a perfect launch-pad for the rest of the week,” said Bhasin on his day’s performance. Meanwhile, Bajaj hit eight birdies and three bogeys while Kahlon and Khan, both had seven birdies against two bogeys. Delhi’s Manav Jaini, local guy Digvijay Singh and Chandigarh golfer Ranjit Singh were tied sixth at four-under-68.
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/golfjpg-459