Karandeep claims lead on Day 1

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 5

Karandeep Kochhar was on fire with an opening day 63 to claim one-shot lead at Vooty & Haldi Golconda Masters 2020 at the Hyderabad Golf Club (HGC), today.

City’s Kochhar, who capped his career-best season last year with a fourth-place finish on the TATA Steel PGTI Order of Merit, showed signs of carrying forward his hot form into the 2020 season as he struck a masterly 8-under-63 to seize the first round lead. The The 20-year-old who became the youngest-ever winner on the PGTI back in 2016 at age 17 years while still an amateur, enjoyed a one-stroke advantage over Patna’s Aman Raj and the Bengaluru duo of Trishul Chinnappa and Khalin Joshi, all three of whom posted 64s.

It was a low-scoring day with as many as 51 players shooting under-par rounds. Kochhar began the tournament with birdies on the first two holes thanks to a tap-in and a 20-feet conversion. He Karandeep missed just one green all day and added three more birdies on the 6th, 7th and 8th to quickly climb up the leader board.

A few missed birdie opportunities early on the back-nine didn’t dampen his spirit as he continued his upward graph with another hat-trick of birdies from the 15th through the 17th. He drove the par-4 15th green and chipped it to within a foot on the 17th. A great bunker shot on the 18th set the youngster up for his fourth straight birdie but his 15-feet putt lipped out.

“I was in contention here last year and played in the leader group in the final round before ending up fourth. I really like this venue as the greens are similar to those at my home course, the Chandigarh Golf Club,” said Kochhar, who played a bogey-free round on Wednesday.

“I found all the greens barring one and also got through the tough opening stretch with two birdies. That’s exactly what is required to score well here. A couple of holes at the start are tricky as the fairways are narrow so one must keep it in play there to avail of the scoring opportunities later on. I am carrying a lot of confidence from my performances last year. I’ll try to maintain that form,” added Kochhar.

Raj, the joint runner-up at last year’s Golconda Masters, once again displayed he has what it takes to negotiate the tough conditions at the HGA. The Asian Tour regular, who had shot three rounds of 64 at the 2019 edition, came up with another 64 to make an impact early on in the tournament. He began his day on the back-nine and accumulated birdies on the 12th, 15th and 16th. He narrowly missed a chip-in for eagle on the 15th. On the front-nine, after missing a couple of chances within 10 feet on the first two holes, the 24-year-old hit a purple patch from the fifth onward making four consecutive birdies with conversions from a range of four to eight feet.

“It was a fairly consistent day for me. I’m happy to have kept the errors out. I got on a roll towards the end and could’ve made a fifth consecutive birdie had my eight-feet putt not lipped out on the closing ninth. I made a really good par save from eight feet on the 13th after hitting it over the green,” said Raj.

Chinnappa began his season with an eagle-two as he holed his approach from 117 yards on the par-4 first hole. Chinnappa added seven birdies and two bogeys thereafter. Joshi, struggling with a neck injury coming into the tournament, too began the tournament with an eagle when he rolled in his wedge shot from just off the green on his opening 10th hole. Joshi added seven birdies and two bogeys to his card joined Raj and Chinnappa in a three-way tie for second place. Five players were bunched together in tied fifth with rounds of 65. This included Sri Lankan Mithun Perera, Mhow’s Om Prakash Chouhan, Ludhiana’s Pukhraj Singh Gill, Gurugram’s Veer Ahlawat and Kolkata’s Shankar Das.

Rashid Khan, the leading Indian in the world ranking at 177 and also the 2019 PGTI Order of Merit champion, carded a 66 to be placed tied 10th. Pune’s Udayan Mane, the 2018 Golconda Masters champion and winner of PGTI’s last event in December 2019 returned a 68 to be tied 18th.

Venkkat Gautham was the best-placed among the Hyderabad-based professionals. He was in tied 27th courtesy his two-under-69.

Former Indian hockey captain Dilip Tirkey, playing as a professional for the first time, produced a 10-over-81 to be placed 125th.