Shankar Das grabs early advantage at Delhi-NCR Open

By Rahul Banerji

Kolkata pro Shankar Das grabbed the early lead at the Tata Steel PGTI’s Delhi-NCR Open with a 7-under-65 at the Noida Golf Course on Tuesday. Bangalore’s C. Muniyappa was one shot behind on 6-under-66 at the Rs. 30 lakh event.

Shankar, coming off a third place finish at the last PGTI event in Pune two weeks back, carried his good form over as he struck eight birdies against a lone bogey.

Das, who won the last of his seven titles on the PGTI in September 2017, made a steady start, going level par through his first five holes till he began building up momentum with two exceptional wedge shots that earned him tap-in birdies before making the turn.

On a roll

The seasoned 36-year-old then went on a roll on his way back with five birdies in six holes thanks to exception iron play. Shankar even missed a hole-in-one and two holes later, his approach from 130 yards stopped inches from the cup.

Shankar said later, “I’m feeling good about my game at the moment as I have had two top-10s in the last two PGTI events. My ball-striking has been excellent and I am confident with my driver, 3-wood and putter. Today I hit some very accurate iron shots as well.

“I’ve been in contention at the last two events at NGC so I’m quite at home at this course. But I now want to make this start count and finally win a title here in Noida.”

Tripping up

Muniyappa produced an eagle, six birdies and two bogeys in his round of 66. The former Indian Open champion was eight-under through 11 holes before he tripped with two bogeys. He made four conversions from a range of 15 to 25 feet and made an excellent recovery from the trees to extract a birdie four holes from home.

Panchkula’s Angad Cheema, Mukesh Kumar of Mhow, Bangalore’s Chikkarangappa S. and the Chandigarh duo of Karandeep Kochhar and Akshay Sharma, winner of the last tournament in Noida, were all tied for third with 5-under-67s.

Defending champion Honey Baisoya of Delhi was tied 10^th with a 3-under 69 while Vikrant Chopra’s 70 made him the highest-placed Noida golfer at tied 16^th.

Also read: Rookie Kaul shows steely nerves to land maiden PGTI title