Ahmedabad, January 14: Amateur Kartik Sharma of the DLF Golf & Country Club, Gurugram and Delhi’s Pawan Verma took the joint first round lead at the PGTI’s Final Qualifying Stage for the 2020 season as both golfers shot scores of two-under-70.
The 19-year-old Kartik Sharma, one of India’s leading amateurs in recent years, drained five birdies against for three bogeys in his two-under 70 to share the lead with Pawan Verma (right), the 2018 Feeder Tour Order of Merit champion, in the first round at the PGTI’s Final Qualifying Stage for the 2020 season.
Sharma, who represented the International Team at the Junior Presidents Cup in Melbourne, Australia, last year, made three long birdie conversions from a range of 12 to 25 feet during his round at the Kensville Golf & Country Club near Ahmedabad.
Kartik, making his first attempt at the PGTI Qualifying School, said, “I played well in the Pre Qualifying having finished tied fourth in Pre Q I. I feel I’ve carried that momentum into the Final Stage.
“So far, I’ve had a good game-plan and have executed that plan well. Today I was struggling with the speed on the greens early on but then adapted to it and putted well in the second half of my round. I also played some good wedge shots towards the end of my round,” added Sharma, whose best amateur world ranking has been 120.
Bangladesh’s Md Sajib Ali and Gurugram’s Deepinder Singh Kullar were in tied third place with matching scores of one-under-71.
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 38 players will earn their full cards for the 2020 PGTI season.
