Seven straight birdies give Lohan an edge at Jaipur Open

By Rahul Banerji

A birdie spree by 2010 Asian Games silver medallist Abhinav Lohan saw him post a sensational 9-under 61 for the lead on the opening day of the Jaipur Open at the Rambagh Golf Club on Tuesday.

Faridabad-based Lohan, who plays at the DLF Golf & Country Club in Gurgaon, finished his round with an astounding seven consecutive birdies.

Shivendra Singh Sisodia, also of Gurgaon, and Bangalore’s M. Dharma almost matched the leader with captivating rounds of 8-under-62 to sit in tied second place in the Rs 30 lakh Tata Steel PGTI event.

The 29-year-old Lohan capitalised on the momentum from his last outing in the Asian Tour event at the Classic Golf & Country Club where he had finished tied 21^st on 10-under par. He was helped by a hot putter that earned a bulk of his birdies in a career-best score.

Abhinav began the day with an erratic shot that found the trees. However, a great second shot set up a 10-foot birdie conversion. He then dropped his only shot of the day before picking up two strokes to make the turn at 2-under.

Setting the pace

Lohan’s 15-foot birdie conversion on the third hole set the tempo for the rest of his round. He then went on to sink putts from a range of 10 to 30 feet on five of the next six holes besides making an up and down to sign off with birdies on his last seven holes.

Lohan said, “I’m delighted since it’s the best round of my professional career. It was my putting that stood out as I converted many long putts and just missed a couple of putts today.

“I didn’t have the best of starts when I found the trees with my first tee shot. But I managed to extract an unexpected birdie there. That definitely helped my cause. I then didn’t put a foot wrong on the way back.

“I feel my tied 21^st finish at Classic couple of weeks back did a lot of good. I was consistent that week and shot four sub-par rounds which really lifted my confidence and got me ready for the second half of the PGTI season.”

Hot runs

Sisodia fired six successive birdies while Dharma shot the same number without dropping a shot.

Chandigarh’s Karandeep Kochhar and Akshay Sharma were joint fourth along with Om Prakash Chouhan of Mhow on 7-under-63.

Defending champion Aman Raj of Patna and pre-tournament favourite Rashid Khan of Delhi were among a bunch in tied 15^th with scores of 66.

Large Indian contingent for AAC

Meanwhile, US collegian Rayhan Thomas, who came within two shots of becoming the first Indian to win the Asia Pacific Amateur Championships last year before finishing tied second is back for one more shot at the title, which gives amateurs a chance to gain a spot at two majors – the Masters and the Open in 2020.

Thomas is now a freshman at the Oklahoma State University, whose recent graduates, Mathew Wolff and Viktor Hovland, have been the rage of the PGA Tour in recent months.

Thomas is featuring in the event, being played this year at Shanghai, for a fourth time. He was T29 in 2016 at Incheon, Korea; T35 in Wellington, New Zealand and T2 last year in Singapore.

Solid promise

He is joined by five other Indians among whom is Bengal-born, Gurgaon-based Kartik Sharma, who made a great run for a Top-10, but eventually finished T-13 last year.

Since then, he has won the New South Wales Amateur and earlier this month was named to the International Team for the Junior Presidents Cup in Melbourne this December. The first Indian to make the Junior President’s Cup was Thomas in 2017.

The others are Delhi’s Harshjeet Singh Sethie, who recently played the pro event at Classic Golf and Country Club International on Asian Tour, Karnataka’s G.N. Basvaraju, Rajasthan’s Girraj Singh Khadka and Delhi’s Vinay Kumar Yadav, who played the AAC last year also.

The Asia Pacific Amateurs have in the past seen many young talented Indians make a start. Rashid Khan, Khalin Joshi, whose T-9 was the best Indian result before Thomas’ runner-up last, Viraj Madappa, S. Chikkarangappa and Aman Raj among others have all played the event in the last few years.

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