By Rahul Banerji
Kolkata’s Shankar Das and Australian Travis Smyth rode their morning starts into the day one lead at 5-under par 67 in the inaugural DGC Open at the Delhi Golf Club on Thursday.
With the wind picking up as the day wore on, low scores were at a premium on the Gary Player redesigned Lodhi Course of the DGC, which is hosting the fourth event of the Asian Tour’s 2022 season.
In the morning, the South African golf icon held his audience spell-bounding in the course of an hour-long clinic after 1991 and 1993 Indian Open winner Ali Sher had ceremonially teed off the $500,000 event.
Veer Ahlawat was a rare exception from amongst the afternoon starters to make significant progress, ending the day in shared third place alongside Thailand’s Nitithorn Thippong on 4-under 68.
Chandigarh boys Karandeep Kochhar and Ajeetesh Sandhu were tied for third place on 3-under 69.
With bogeys and double-bogeys littering the leader-board, it is clear scoring on the quick, re-contoured greens is proving to be a testing task for the 138-strong field.
“The greens may look terrific but they’re hard to read,” noted one suffering professional after handing in his card.
There was also good news for home golfers with as many as five Indians in the top eight – Das, Ahlawat, Ajeetesh Sandhu, PGTI Q School topper Varun Parikh, and Karandeep Kochhar.
Momentum shift
Smyth rode an eagle 3 on the par-5 14th hole on his way to the top of the leader-board where he was later joined by Das, who put in a charge later in the morning session.
The pony-tailed Australian added four birdies against one dropped shot for his day’s 5-under score while the experienced Das carded six birdies against one bogey to build his total.
“I was good off the tees today and used mostly my 3-wood,” Das said later.
“While my chipping was not that great I was able to make up with my putting today. In fact, I practiced hard with the 3-wood before travelling here for The DGC Open.” Das added.
Smyth pointed to his eagle three as being the point his round really got under way.
“The eagle on 14 was definitely a momentum-changer. I hit a 2-iron off the tee thinking t would take three shots to get to the green but I got a good roll.
“Followed that with a 3-iron that reached the top shelf of the green to give me a 15-foot putt. It really got the round going through it still wasn’t easy out there.
Wind woes
“The wind was definitely a factor especially in the second nine. It was pretty calm in the morning but it started to swirl around quite a bit later. The anxiety levels were high,” he added with a smile.
“The greens were just perfect, a little tricky as it wasn’t going with the grain. There were quite a lot of putts out there where it went against the grain so reading the greens right was key.
“This is in fact my first time at the Delhi Golf Club and I’m just loving it.
“I’d actually like to know if it’s the tightest course in the world, because it felt that way for sure. My strength is my iron play and I’m quite happy with that here at the DGC.”
For the in-form Ahlawat, it was a matter of keeping his head down on a tough day.
“I was going well and could have capitalised further but for a bogey on 12. Two birdies after that helped me further and I just kept it going with pars on my last two holes.”
“I hit the ball really well off the tee,” Ahmedabad-based Parikh said.
Defensive option
“I hit 13 out of 14 fairways which is the key at DGC. I was playing a lot of defensive golf today, to be honest.
“I am not going to take on the DGC and I am going to play with my own style of play. So it’s going to be defensive for me all week.
“The greens have been re-laid and it is much tougher. You have to think about every shot now.”
With scores rising as the day wore on, positions change frequently on the leaderboard and by sundown, as many as 13 were in a share of ninth place including Shiv Kapur, Aman Raj, Shamim Khan, Sachin Baisoya and Manu Gandas.
“I started off quite well, was quite happy with my round, 4-under for the first 10 holes. Then I hit a bit of a speed-bump on the back nine,” Kapur said.
“I didn’t quite have my A game today. Made a couple of sloppy bogies coming in and that made the difference between a good and an average round.”
Two halves
“It was like a tale of two halves. In the first half I struck it well, gave myself a lot of chances, didn’t really hole any long putts, just hit it close.
“Then I missed a couple of greens when the wind got up, got a bit tricky when it started to swirl and dropped a couple of shots. Had a bad tee shot on nine and finished with a bogey.
“But I have to say the course is in the best condition I’ve ever seen it. Earlier on the par-5s, you hit a good tee shot and that was pretty much game over.
“Now you’ve got to hit good shots into the greens or you have some pretty tricky up and downs.
“On a course like this lined with trees and bushes, there’s no margin for error. One loose shot here is two, three shots gone and the big numbers can really hurt you around here.”
Also read: Close battle anticipated as inaugural DGC Open set to tee off
Discover more from Tee Time Tales
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.