By Rahul Banerji
Bangladesh golfer Jamal Hossain dominated the first round of the Tata Steel PGTI Players Championship with an impressive seven-under 65 at the Panchkula Golf Club on Tuesday.
Trailing Jamal by a stroke was Delhi golfer Harshjeet Singh Sethie at six-under 66, while fellow Bangladeshi golfer Badal Hossain was two behind in third place on five-under 67.
Chandigarh’s Yuvraj Singh Sandhu and Panchkula-based amateur Brijesh Kumar had four-under 68s to be tied fourth at the Rs. 50 lakh event.
The five others sharing fourth place were Om Prakash Chouhan, Arjun Sharma, Sandeep Singh, Jay Pandya and Sri Lanka’s Anura Rohana.
Hossain’s round included six birdies, a chip-in eagle on the fifth hole, and one bogey. He also chipped-in for birdie on 13.
Fine display
The standout feature of Jamal’s round was his driving and chipping as he set up birdie putts within four feet on three occasions, while also managing a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole.
Jamal said, “My driving has been my strength all season but with my second shots and putting also clicking today, I was expecting a good score.
“This year I have focused on my driving and I am happy to see it yield results.”
Sethie began with a birdie but then dropped a double bogey two holes later, going out of bounds.
However, he came back well with a tap-in birdie and two long birdie conversions. Sethie’s front nine was all about his short game as he made a chip in on the fourth and set up three other chip-putts for birdie.
Rashid Khan, just back from Taiwan after narrowly missing out on the winner’s cheque in a nail-biting play-off finish on the Asian Tour, struck a first round of 69 to be tied 11th.
Among the other top names, PGTI Order of Merit leader Ajeetesh Sandhu was tied 23rd on 70, Olympian Udayan Mane was tied 33rd on 71 while defending champion Chikkarangappa S. was T50 on 72.
Also read: Rashid Khan misses out in Taipei as local star Chan wins playoff
Discover more from Tee Time Tales
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.