A commanding winner in the season-opener at his home course -- the Eagleton Golf Resort -- last week, Anirban Lahiri carried that form into the Southern India Amateur golf championship at the Bangalore Golf Club here on Tuesday.
Playing probably the best golf of his fledgling amateur career, the 19-year-old Lahiri tamed the 6,113-yard BGC course with a sizzling six-under-par 64 to hit the front after the first round. Abhishek Jha, his Eagleton clubmate, was two strokes behind on 66, while Amanjyot Singh, Saurabh Bahuguna and Rudresh Sharma were tied third on 68. Simarjeet Singh, joint runner-up with Lahiri last year, was sixth on 69.
“It was one of my best rounds of golf,” Lahiri observed. “I played my ‘A’ game today.” Of that, there was never any doubt. If not for two three-putted bogeys, Lahiri would have been sitting on a much bigger cushion. He was sitting pretty for a birdie on both the third and 16th holes, but he hit a little too firm on the quick greens and paid the penalty.

No margin for error
The penalty for missing fairways can be huge at the tight par-70 course. The Merit List leader knew that when he walked out on a relatively calm morning. The wind did pick up as the day wore on, but it couldn’t stop Lahiri’s charge.
Lahiri’s strategy was simple — just keep the ball in play and then attack the pin. He missed just three fairways all day. The teenager began with a birdie-birdie start to his round, thanks in the main to his brilliant approach shots. He nailed the pin on the first with a brilliant pitching-wedge second shot and then tapped in a two-footer for birdie. On the second, after a fine 3-wood tee shot, Lahiri came up with a brilliant chip, just four feet short of the flag. He duly putted that for his second birdie.
A 12-footer for a birdie beckoned on the par-3 third, but Lahiri hit his putt a little too firmly and missed the return putt as well for a bogey. But he didn’t let that blemish bother him as he had further birdies on the fourth, fifth and eighth to take the turn at four-under 31.
Lahiri didn’t let up steam after the turn either, birdieing the 10th, 14th and 15th holes. He three-putted the 16th from 15 feet for his second bogey.
While Lahiri’s putter was a trifle suspect, Jha had a different story to tell. “Putting was what saved me today,” Jha said. The lanky golfer hit just nine greens in regulation, but putted like a king, needing a mere 24 putts for the round.
He sank a 20-footer on the fifth for a birdie, a 12-footer for eagle on the eighth, and had two short putts for birdies on the second and 17th holes. Jha’s lone blemish came on the 13th hole, where he never recovered after finding the left rough with his 3-iron tee shot.

Leading scores (after 18 holes): 64: Anirban Lahiri; 66: Abhishek Jha; 68: Amanjyot Singh, Saurabh Bahuguna, Rudresh Sharma; 69: Simarjeet Singh; 70: Akhilesh, Samaresh Sardar; 71: Balvinder Singh Mattu, Mithun Perera (SL), C G Somiah, Manav Das, Navtez Singh, Jasjeet Singh, K Prabhagaran (SL).