JOIN USGangjee, greenhorns shine bright on day one
A seasoned campaigner shared the spotlight with two dark horses in the opening round of PGTI-Eagleburg Open that saw plenty of average campaigners put their illustrious colleagues to shade here on Tuesday.
On a wonderful day for golfing where the wind kept playing hide and seek, Asian Tour winner Rahil Gangjee shot a blemish-free four-under 68 to share the lead with two relative unknowns -- Arshpreet Thind and K Prabagaran -- at the Eagleton Golf Resort.
The quartet of Sanjay Kumar, Kapil Kumar, Mukesh Kumar and Vishal Singh were tied for the fourth spot a further stroke behind while another eight pros, including a former winner at this course C Muniyappa, were bunched together at 70 as seasoned names struggled with their short game to go overboard.
Gangjee, who has returned to the Asian and Indian Tour this year in a bid to rediscover his form after two poor seasons on the Webtour.com, made the best of the benign conditions that were on offer in his early morning start. With not much wind to contend with, the 34-year-old Kolkatan struck the ball beautifully throughout his round, finding the fairways rather comfortably and often setting himself up for birdie opportunities.
Gangjee picked up his first shot of the day on the par-4 sixth. After a decent drive, he lob-wedged from 100 yards out to within eight feet and then sunk the birdie putt without any fuss. Searching for his first title in five years, Gangjee fired his second birdie on the 10th before pulling off his best putt of the day on the 12th that helped him go three-under.
Judging the pace to a nicety, Gangjee rolled in a 35-footer birdie and he then sunk a 12-foot left-to-right curler on he 14th to pick up his fourth shot of the day.
“I was solid right through out,” said a beaming Gangjee. “I just kept my game simple. No fancy shots, no trying anything out of the ordinary. And it just helped.”
Just like Gangjee, Arshpreet too produced a solid opening act. With nearly a decade’s experience on the Tour but still awaiting his moment of triumph, the 6’3’’ Punjab man carded five birdies -- 5th, 9th, 10th, 14th, 15th -- against a lone bogey on the 16th. Sri Lankan Prabagran too matched Arshpreet’s card, mixing five birdies against a lone bogey.
While the underdogs made merry, title favourites and local pros Anirban Lahiri and S Chikkarangappa found the going extremely difficult. Both Lahiri and Chikkarangappa struggled with their driving and with their short game too not clicking, the duo had to settle for scored of 73 and 72 respectively.
Among the local pros in action, Muniyappa shone the brightest with a fine 70. Trying to find his A game after being laid low by a career-threatening injury, Muniyappa had five birdies but the three bogeys dented his card.
Leading scores (after 18 holes): 68: Rahil Gangjee, Arshpreet Thind, K Prabagaran; 69: Sanjay Kumar, Kapil Kumar, Mukesh Kumar, Vishal Singh; 70: Ranjit Singh, Kanishk Madan, Shankar Das, Anthony Paul Chaot, Abhinav Lohan, C Muniyappa, Vikrant Chopra, Siddharth Semwal; 71: RA Mollah, DS Kullar, N Dawar, R Bajaj, K Bhatia, Shamim Khan, Sandeep Syal, Sudhir Sharma, Md Rezaul Karim.