Four-way tie for lead on opening day of MP Cup at DGC

By Rahul Banerji

Four in-form players were tied for the lead on 5-under par 67 after the first day of the Rs 70 lakh MP Cup at the Delhi Golf Club on Tuesday.

Manu Gandas of Gurgaon and Bangalore’s Chikkarangappa S, continued their rich vein and were joined atop the leader-board by Delhi golfers Delhi’s Rashid Khan and Ajay Baisoya.

In chase of the lead group was another Delhi-based player, Gulfam, and Shravan Desai of Ahmedabad at the MO cup, which is being supported by the Just In Time Foundation..

Desai is here fresh off a career-best tied ninth at the J&K Open in Srinagar last month. The duo was tied for fifth place.

Gandas was off to a flying start with three birdies on his first four holes, making conversions from between 15 and 30 feet.

With two more long birdie putts on 18 and one, Gandas, winner of his maiden PGTI title at Hyderabad last month, moved to five-under for the day.

Currently fifth on the PGTI Order of Merit, he then dropped a shot on the third hole but bounced back with his longest birdie conversion of the day, a 30-footer, on seven.

“I enjoyed a great day with the putter. I kept finding the hole from long range. Starting the day with a 25-feet birdie conversion was a huge morale-booster,” Gandas said.

Consistent golf

“I also managed to get myself out of trouble from the rough on a few occasions. I’ve been playing consistent golf this season and am happy to carry forward the momentum this week.

“The newly renovated DGC throws up its own set of challenges as the greens and the areas around it are quite different compared to what they were three years back when I played my last event here.

“The approach to the greens now has to be different,” he added.

Rashid, who has posted top-20s in the last three events, began the day with a bogey after finding the bushes. He then made up for the early setback with birdies on 12 and 18.

Rashid then sank four straight birdies from the third through the sixth holes courtesy of some terrific putting as he drained putts from 10 to 20 feet.  

Rashid said later, “I’ve shot some good numbers over the past few events but have not finished well.

“But today’s round is better than my good scores from the last few events because today I played on the new layout at the DGC.

“I had a slow start but the long birdie conversion on the third really got me going and set up the birdie run on the front-nine.”

Long putt

Chikkarangappa, currently second in the PGTI Order of Merit, made seven birdies and two bogeys in his 67 which featured a 40-foot birdie putt on 12.

Baisoya struck two eagles, five birdies and four bogeys in his round. Baisoya’s eagles came on 14 and 18 where he sank putts from 10 feet and eight feet respectively.

He also missed a hole-in-one by a whisker on 12, the shot just rolling past the pin.

India star Jyoti Randhawa and PGTI Order of Merit leader Karandeep Kochhar of Chandigarh shot scores of 71 to be tied 25^th.

Two-time Hero Indian Open winner S.S.P. Chawrasia (73), Dubai-based Shiv Kapur (74) and Tokyo Olympian Udayan Mane (75) were tied 50^th, tied 61^st and T76.

Also read: DGC to host new PGTI event; Chawrasia, Kapur are top draws