Four-way tie for day one lead at Chandigarh Players C’ship

By Rahul Banerji

Varun Chopra, Tapy Ghai, Yashas Chandra, and Mohammad Sanju shot four-under 68s to lead the way on day one of the Rs. 1 crore Tata Steel PGTI Players Championship at Chandigarh Golf Club on Wednesday.

On a windy day, the leaderboard was packed with seven golfers bunched in tied fifth place just one shot behind the lead at 69, the PGTI said.

The pack included Delhi’s Sachin Baisoya who made a hole-in-one on the eighth as well as Chandigarh pros Harendra Gupta, defending champion Yuvraj Singh Sandhu and Akshay Sharma.

The three other players sharing fifth place were Mari Muthu, Harsh Gangwar and Divyanshu Bajaj.

Inspired by Spaniard Jon Rahm’s winning performance at the Masters last week, rookie Varun Chopra put behind the disappointment of a double-bogey on his opening hole of the tournament with a superb display thereafter as he went on to pick up six birdies.

Chicago-based Varun, a joint runner-up at PGTI’s event in Kolkata in February this year, made three birdie conversions from 15 to 30 feet and also capitalised on two of the par-5s by sinking two-putts for birdies there.

The 23-year-old fired his approach within three feet of the pin for his sixth birdie of the day on hole 17.

Inspired run

Varun, who is staying with family in Chandigarh this week, said, “After making double bogey on the first hole, I thought about and was inspired by what Jon Rahm did at the Masters last week.

“Rahm too began the tournament with a double-bogey but then came back with birdies on the next two holes and a score of 65 in the first round which laid the foundation for his victory. That thought gave me a lot of incentive to stay positive.

“I also remember this course well and have a good idea of how to approach it because I had played a PGTI event here in 2021 while still an amateur and had finished as the best amateur and inside the top 30 on that occasion.

“As I’m staying with my grandparents in Chandigarh, I also have the advantage of home comfort.

“I’m familiar with the city as I’ve been visiting my grandparents in Chandigarh since I was a kid. That helps when you’re far away from home.”

Mysore’s Yashas Chandra and Tapy Ghai of Gurgaon both made seven birdies and three bogeys during their first round.

Yashas sank a couple of 15-foot birdies while Mohammad Sanju of Kolkata mixed an eagle and four birdies with a double bogey.

Sachin Baisoya struck a hole-in-one for the second week in succession as he had fired an ace at last week’s tournament in Noida too.

Second on the PGTI Order of Merit, Aman Raj opted to fly to Cam Ranh for the $2 million International Series Vietnam as he was first reserve but missed out as all confirmed players turned up.

Round 1 leaderboard

68: Varun Chopra, Tapy Ghai, Yashas Chandra, Mohammad Sanju

69: Sachin Baisoya, Mari Muthu, Harendra Gupta, Yuvraj Singh Sandhu, Akshay Sharma, Harsh Gangwar, Divyanshu Bajaj

Also read: Sandhu back on home turf for Players C’ship title defence