Chennai’s Tarun Veeraraghavan hit the front in Category A (15-17 years) on the opening day of the KGA South Zone Junior golf championships here on Friday.

Veeraraghavan, winner of the Coorg leg last week, shot a nine-over 81 to take the lead in the two-day event, the fourth leg of the South Zone circuit.

Mysore’s IL Aalaap was two strokes off the pace, while local lad Trishul Chinnappa was a further stroke behind in third place.

Coimbatore’s Vashista S Pawar (86) took a slender one-stroke lead over Sarhan Italia, winner of the third leg at BGC on Thursday, in Category B (13-14 years).

Akshath Vidyanath, who won in a play-off on Thursday, shot a fine 82 to open up a huge five-stroke lead over his Chennai city-mate Shivnaren Srinivasan in Category C (11-12 years).

Scores (after 18 holes):

Category A (15-17 years): 81: Tarun Veeraraghavan (Chennai); 83: IL Aalaap (Mysore); 84: Trishul Chinnappa (Bangalore); 85: Ali Akmal Jan (Bangalore); 86: Vashista S Pawar (Coimbatore).

Category B (13-14): 86: Vashista S Pawar (Coimbatore); 87: Sarhan Italia (Bangalore); 91: Anirudh K (Hyderabad); 93: Namit Gambhir (Bangalore); 96: Yashas Chandra (Mysore).

Category C (11-12): 82: Akshath Vidyanath (Chennai); 87: Shivnaren Srinivasan (Chennai); 89: Akash Srinivasan (Bangalore); 96: D Venkat Gautham (Hyderabad); 99: Arshaan Mehra (Bangalore).

Category D (below 10 years): 110: K Siddharth (Bangalore); 111: Kshitij Naveed Kaul (Delhi), Prateek Madhiraju (Bangalore); 115; Vrushank Balu (Bangalore); 117: Aditi Ashok (Bangalore).