Digvijay fires on competitive return to lead Tolly field

By Rahul Banerji

Adventure entrepreneur Digvijay Singh made an impressive return to competitive golf with a sizzling 8-under-par 62 on day one of the Rs 30 lakh Bengal Open Golf Championship at the Tollygunge Club in Kolkata on Thursday.

The Gurgaon-based Digvijay, a former Asian Tour winner who missed his PGTI full card at the Qualifying School in January this year, is playing his first tournament of the 2020 season a break of almost two months.

Faridabad’s Abhinav Lohan also made an impact on the day with a 7-under 63 hold second place in the Rs 30 lakh Tata Steel PGTI event.

Digvijay, a winner of 13 professional titles, was off to a flying start with a birdie but ended up having a sedate front nine as he could only collect a birdie and bogey over the next eight holes.

Change of fortunes

The 48-year-old’s fortunes changed on the back nine when he made an early eagle-birdie, draining a 20-footer for the latter.

Digvijay gained further momentum with an extraordinary par-save on the 12^th where he came up with his best shot of the round.

Sixty yards short of green, he exploited a narrow gap between the trees with an outstanding nine-iron third shot to land it within five feet of the pin to salvage par.

Digvijay then enjoyed a final flourish with birdies on the last four holes. He chipped-in on the 15^th and left himself short conversions for the rest including a tap-in on the 18^th where he almost holed his tee shot.

Digvijay, also an expert skydiver, said, “I have been busy setting up my skydiving business since last year.

“That’s the reason I couldn’t dedicate enough time to golf and ended up missing quite a few events in 2019. Eventually, I had to head to the PGTI Qualifying School in January this year.

‘Encouraging’

“But I didn’t play well at the Q School and thereafter suffered a shoulder injury while skydiving.

“These factors combined to keep me away from golf for almost two months. Shooting such a low score in my first competitive round in two months is quite encouraging.

“I didn’t miss anything within six feet today and played some quality wedge shots. I had a quiet front-nine before my round took flight with the eagle on the 10^th.

“The par save on the 12^th added further momentum to my round as I could’ve easily bogeyed that hole,” added Digvijay, who had a tied third finish at a PGTI event played at Tollygunge Club in 2016.

Abhinav Lohan’s round was highlighted by four straight birdies on the front nine where he sank three putts from a range of 10 to 15 feet.

Lohan, who earned his maiden title in December last year, added three more birdies on the back nine thanks to his hot putter. Abhinav’s longest conversion of the day was a 30-footer on the 13^th.

Lohan said, “I made the most of all my opportunities today and putted really well. I’ll draw a lot of confidence from the fact that this is my best round at Tollygunge so far.

“The run of four successive birdies on the front-nine set up the round for me. Picking up a birdie on the fifth was particularly satisfying as it had a tough pin position.”

Tight bunch

Five golfers were bunched in tied third on 65, including the Chandigarh duo of Aadil Bedi and Karandeep Kochhar, Bangalore’s C. Muniyappa, Om Prakash Chouhan of Mhow and Sri Lanka’s N. Thangaraja.

Rookie Kartik Sharma of Gurgaon had five straight birdies during his round of 66 which placed him tied eighth along with Kolkata’s Viraj Madappa and veteran Mukesh Kumar of Mhow.

Among those in tied 11^th at 67 were PGTI Order of Merit leader Udayan Mane of Pune, Bangalore’s Khalin Joshi and the Kolkata duo of Shankar Das and Sunit Chowrasia.

Bangaloreans Rahil Gangjee and Chikkarangappa S. as well as defending champion Md Zamal Hossain Mollah of Bangladesh were a further shot back in tied 20^th.

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