By Rahul Banerji
One hundred and twenty professionals sought to shake off eight months of competitive rust on the opening day of the Tata Steel PGTI Players Championship at Panchkula and Chandigarh with local lad Akshay Sharma leading the way.
Chandigarh’s Sharma marked the occasion with some fireworks in a blistering 8-under-par 64 while Asian Tour regular Chikkarangappa S. of Bangalore was second on 6-under-66.
The tournament is being played across two venues – Panchkula Golf Club and Chandigarh Golf Club – with half the field playing in either venue and swapping over on day two.
The post-cut third and fourth rounds will only be played at Panchkula.
While the two leading scores came from Panchkula, Kolkata’s Sunit Chowrasia recorded the day’s best score at Chandigarh, a 5-under-67, to sit third on the leaderboard.
Sharma, a 2018 winner on the PGTI, was delighted to get off the blocks with an error-free round.
Good planning
The 30-year-old’s placement on the fairways and greens at Panchkula set up five birdie putts within a range of three and four feet. He also sank three long birdie putts of 12 to 15 feet.
“I was quite accurate today as I found all fairways and made 17 greens in regulation,” Sharma said.
“It got a little windy on the back nine but I still managed five birdies there thanks to my good ball-striking.
“Playing at Panchkula was the bigger challenge for me as Chandigarh is my home course. I didn’t expect to go so low here, so this score is like a bonus for me as I’m confident of doing well in Chandigarh tomorrow.
“This was my first competitive round in almost eight months like most other golfers playing this event.
“However, I didn’t feel rusty as I had been regularly playing pro-pool rounds with fellow Chandigarh professionals during the past few months.
“Those rounds provided all of us some kind of simulation of competitive golf with no events taking place. I also worked a lot on my fitness and mental preparation and that seems to be showing results now.”
Sharp contrast
Chikkarangappa, a 13-time winner on the PGTI, also got off to a splendid start on Wednesday but had a contrasting round as compared to Akshay’s.
Chikka sank nine birdies in exchange for three bogeys in a round where he made some solid recoveries after finding the hazard or the trees on at least four occasions.
He also did well with the putter, draining four birdies from a range of 12 to 15 feet.
“I scrambled well today, made some quality up and downs and holed some tricky putts from 13 to 14 feet,” Chikka said,
“The highlight of my round though would be the par save on the 11th where I found my ball in the hazard and struck a couple of good shots from there to salvage the hole.
“That gave me the momentum to pick up three more birdies.
Making adjustments
“It will now be about adapting well to totally different playing conditions as I switch venues on successive days, playing in Chandigarh in round two where longer clubs will be the key and then getting back to Panchkula for the last two rounds.”
While Chowrasia produced the best effort at Chandigarh with his six birdies and one bogey, local favourite Karandeep Kochhar shot a 68 at the venue to be tied fourth along with Gurgaon’s Manu Gandas.
Among other names, Chandigarh’s Aadil Bedi and Patna’s Aman Raj were tied sixth with scores of 69 and Delhi-based Rashid Khan (70) was tied 13th.
Order of Merit leader Udayan Mane (71) of Pune was tied 20th, Chandigarh’s Ajeetesh Sandhu (72) tied 29th and Khalin Joshi (74) and Viraj Madappa (74) were T47th.
Also read: Domestic professional golf returns after eight-month hiatus
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