By Rahul Banerji
Karandeep Kochhar who had a career-best fourth place on the Tata Steel PGTI Order of Merit last year, led the way in the 2020 season-opener with an 8-under 63 on day one of the Golconda Masters at the Hyderabad Golf Club on Wednesday.
The 20-year-old from Chandigarh, the youngest-ever winner on the PGTI in 2016 at 17 years and five months while still an amateur, held a one-shot advantage over Patna’s Aman Raj and the Bangalore duo of Trishul Chinnappa and Khalin Joshi.
On a low-scoring day at the Vooty and Haldi presented event, 51 players in all shot sub-par rounds.
Kochhar began the year with birdies on the first two holes, a tap-in and a 20-foot conversion. Karandeep, who missed just one green all day, then added birdies on the sixth, seventh and eighth holes to quickly climb up the leader-board.
Staying the course
A few missed birdie opportunities early on the back nine didn’t seem to matter as Kochhar continued his climb with another hat-trick of birdies from the 15th through the 17th.
He drove the par-4 15th green and chipped it to within a foot on the 17th. An excellent bunker shot on the 18th set a fourth straight birdie but the 15-foot putt lipped out.
Karandeep, who went bogey-free on Wednesday, said, “I was in contention here last year and played in the leader group in the final round before ending up fourth. I really like this venue as the greens are similar to those at the Chandigarh Golf Club.
“Today what worked was that I found all the greens barring one and also got through the tough opening stretch with two birdies. That’s exactly what is required to score well here.
“A couple of holes at the start are tricky as the fairways are narrow so one must keep it in play there to avail of the scoring opportunities later on.
“I’m carrying a lot of confidence from my performances last year. I’ll try to maintain that form.
“I changed my swing about 10 days back so that seems to be paying off especially with my iron-play being so good today. My putting was spot-on since I didn’t make a single three-putt.”
Confident display
Aman Raj, joint runner-up at last year’s event, once again displayed he has what it takes to negotiate the tough conditions at the HGA. The Asian Tour regular, who had shot three rounds of 64 at the 2019 edition, came up with another 64 on Wednesday to make an early impact.
Aman began from the back nine where he picked up three birdies and narrowly missed a chip-in for eagle on one of them. He missed out early after making the turn, but the 24-year-old then hit a purple patch with four consecutive birdies.
Aman said, “It was a fairly consistent day for me. I’m happy to have kept the errors out. I got on a roll towards the end and could’ve made a fifth consecutive birdie had my eight-foot putt not lipped out on the closing ninth.
“I made a really good par save from eight feet on the 13th after hitting it over the green.
“I have the confidence of having played well here last year. This course is all about placing the ball well and putting. You need not hit the ball too long but you have to judge the wind well as the wind also plays a decisive role here.”
Hot start
Trishul Chinnappa began his season with an eagle-two as he holed his approach from 117 yards on the par-4 first hole. He then added seven birdies against two bogeys.
Khalin Joshi, struggling with a neck injury coming into the tournament, also began with an eagle when he rolled in his wedge shot from just off the green. Joshi then added seven birdies and two bogeys to his card.
Sri Lankan Mithun Perera, Mhow’s Om Prakash Chouhan, Ludhiana’s Pukhraj Singh Gill, Gurugram’s Veer Ahlawat and Kolkata’s Shankar Das were all in a tie for fifth place on six-under 65.
Rashid Khan, the leading Indian in the world ranking at 177 and also the 2019 PGTI Order of Merit champion, had a 66 for a share of 10th place.
Pune’s Udayan Mane, the 2018 Golconda Masters champion and winner of the PGTI’s final event of 2019, returned a 68 to be tied 18th.
Venkkat Gautham was the best-placed among the Hyderabad-based professionals. He was in tied 27th courtesy his two-under-69.
Former Indian hockey captain Dilip Tirkey, playing as a professional for the first time, produced a 10-over-81 to be placed 125th.
Also read: Udayan Mane wins Tour C’ship with PGTI record, Kaul is emerging player
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