Chandigarh’s Sandhu shoots 66 for Day 1 lead at Haryana Open

By Rahul Banerji

Local lad Jairaj Singh Sandhu shot a first-round score of 6-under 66 to take the lead at the Rs 1 crore Haryana Open presented by Wonder Cement at the Panchkula Golf Club on Wednesday.

Rahil Gangjee, Samarth Dwivedi and Abhinav Lohan were tied for second place with matching scores of 67, the PGTI said.

Besides Jairaj, the other Tricity golfers in the top 10 were Aadil Bedi, Akshay Sharma and Amandeep Johl, all placed tied fifth at 68.

Left-hander Jairaj Singh Sandhu, who started from the 10^th tee,  gave his round a flying start start with birdies on holes 10 and 11, driving the green on the latter.

The 26-year-old from Chandigarh then made a 20-foot eagle conversion on 12. then went on to add three more birdies and a bogey to his card.

Second home

Sandhu said later, “Panchkula is like a second home course to me because I play here quite often so I’m quite familiar with the conditions here and that helped me in today’s round.

“The Panchkula Golf Club has done an outstanding job to get the course in great shape for this event despite the damage done by the heavy rains during the monsoon.

“The key for me today was being patient and not getting carried away despite the great start I had as I was four-under through the first three holes. It’s easy to get ahead of yourself in such situations but I didn’t let that happen.”

Order of Merit leader Om Prakash Chounah was 39^th and second-placed Aman Raj in 31^st.

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