Dulal Hossain, Rishi take opening round honours in Final Qualifying Stage

By Rahul Banerji

Bangladesh’s Md Dulal Hossain and Lucknow’s Rishi Kumar took the opening round honours at the PGTI’s Final Qualifying Stage for the 2019 season with scores of one-under-71 for the joint lead at the Kensville Golf & Country Club near Ahmedabad on Monday.

While Dulal sank three birdies against two bogeys, Rishi produced two birdies and one bogey on an extremely windy day.

Dulal’s three birdies came as a result of conversions from a range of five to nine feet.

‘Clean striking’

Dulal said, “I struck the ball really well despite the tough conditions. My putting was also decent but I need to further improve on it. I didn’t have a great season on the PGTI last year as I missed a lot of cuts.

“But I feel my game is now on the upswing and a good performance this week will help me start the season with a new lease of confidence.”

Chandigarh teenager Aadil Bedi, who recently qualified for the Asian Tour, was tied third at level-par-72 along with two other Chandigarh golfers, Gurbaaz Mann and Rajinder, as well as Lucknow’s Vijay Kumar and Gurgaon’s Priyanshu Singh.

The top 80 players plus ties will make the cut after round two of the Final Qualifying Stage. At the end of round four, the top 41 players will earn their full cards for the 2019 PGTI season.

Also read: 2018 was a year of many highs for Indian golf