Vasu, Abhishek tied third, rookie Tushar claims lead

City's Vasu Sehgal along with Karnal’s Rohit Narwal and Panchkula golfer Abhishek Kumar ended the opening day at tied-3rd at 3-under 33, while rookie Tushar Pannu of Karnal set the bar at 5-under 31 to lead the 5th PGTI NEXGEN season at the Imperial Golf Estate in Ludhiana.

Advertisement

The 21-year-old Pannu enjoyed a one-shot lead. Kushal Singh of Gurugram returned a 4-under 32 to be placed second after round one.

The greens is a par-72 nine-hole course, where the nine holes are played twice to comprise a round. The first round of the tournament comprised only nine holes instead of 18 with the par for the course being 36, after light showers on Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, Pannu’s putter ensured he led the field on the opening day with an error-free round. He drained an eagle on the sixth hole along with three birdies on Tuesday, all coming as a result of conversions from a range of 12 to 15 feet. He also made a great par-save on the fourth after an erratic tee shot. “When you play just nine holes, the effort is to play steady and stay under-par. I was looking at two-under today so I’m thrilled that I exceeded my expectations. The putter was on fire as I sank a lot of long putts,” said Pannu. “I’ve had a decent start to my professional career this year with a few top-20s under my belt on the PGTI’s main tour. It gave me a lot of confidence coming into this NEXGEN event.”

Kushal Singh too shot a bogey-free round as he was close on the heels of the leader at 32.