Brilliant Rohan sets the pace

Pune lad Rohan Dhole Patil set the pace in the IGU Rotary Karnataka Amateur Golf Championship with a scorching opening round here on Tuesday.

On a muggy day at the Eagleton Golf Resort, Rohan produced a blistering first nine before hitting a couple of roadblocks in the inward journey to card five-under 67.

Haryana's Daksh Shokeen was placed second, just a shot behind Rohan, while Saurav Rathi, also from Haryana, was lying third with an up and down 69.

Rohan, a 10th tee starter, was off the blocks in blazing fashion, birdieing the opening four holes. He then picked up another shot on the 16th to take the turn at five-under.

Rohan then fired his sixth birdie of the round on the second hole and at that stage, he looked like going really low. But he erred for the first time by bogeying the fourth. He quickly made amends with a birdie on the sixth but a bogey on the eighth set him back by a hole again.

Daksh too made a fine start, picking up shots right away on the opening two holes. He bogeyed the third but immediately fired back-to-back birdies on the fourth and fifth holes before going on a long par stretch till the 15th hole. Birdies on the 16th and 18th were sandwiched by a bogey on the 17th.

Leading scores: Men: 67: Rohan Dhole Patil; 68: Daksh Shokeen; 69: Saurav Rathi; 70: Yuvraj Singh, Harshjeet Sethie; 71: Anshul Patel, Harsh Gangwar.