Hyderabad, February 5: Rashid Khan, the leading Indian in World Rankings was three strokes behind Karandeep Kochhar of Chandigarh, who continued his good form as the 2020 PGTI season got underway at the Vooty & Haldi Presents Golconda Masters 2020. Kochhar shot a superb eight-under 63 to take the pole position.
Kochhar, 20, who won a pro event as a 17-year-old, while still being an amateur in 2016, is one shot clear of Patna’s Aman Raj and the Bengaluru duo of Trishul Chinnappa and Khalin Joshi, all three of whom posted 64s.
On a day, when the Hyderabad Golf Club yielded low scores, as many as 51 players carded under-par rounds.
Rashid Khan, the leading Indian with the world ranking of 177, and the 2019 PGTI Order of Merit champion, carded a 66 to be placed tied 10th. Rashid had a fine front nine with birdies on second, fifth, sixth and eighth to turn in four-under. He dropped a shot on par-4 12thbutt added birdies on 13thand 17th.
Kochhar opened with birdies on the first two holes, once with a tap-in and once with a 20-feet conversion. He added three more birdies on the sixth, seventh and eighth to quickly climb up the leaderboard.
Despite missing a few birdie opportunities early on the back-nine Kochhar stayed upbeat and added a hat-trick of birdies from the 15th through the 17th. He drove the par-4 15th green and chipped it to within a foot on the 17th. A great bunker shot on the 18th set the youngster up for his fourth straight birdie but his 15-feet putt lipped out.
Bogey-free Karandeep missed just one green all day.
Karandeep said, “I was in contention here last year and played in the leader group in the final round before ending up fourth. I really like this venue as the greens are similar to those at my home course, the Chandigarh Golf Club.
“I changed my swing about 10 days back so that seems to be paying off especially with my iron-play being so good today. My putting was spot-on since I didn’t make a single three-putt.”
Aman Raj, the joint runner-up at last year’s Golconda Masters, once again displayed he has what it takes to negotiate the tough conditions at the HGA. The Asian Tour regular, who had shot three rounds of 64 at the 2019 edition, came up with another 64 on Wednesday to make an early impact in the tournament.
Aman began his day on the back-nine and accumulated birdies on the 12th, 15th and 16th. He narrowly missed a chip-in for eagle on the 15th. On the front-nine, after missing a couple of chances within 10 feet on the first two holes, the 24-year-old hit a purple patch from the fifth onward making four consecutive birdies with conversions from a range of four to eight feet.
Aman said, “It was a fairly consistent day for me. I’m happy to have kept the errors out. I got on a roll towards the end and could’ve made a fifth consecutive birdie had my eight-feet putt not lipped out on the closing ninth. I made a really good par save from eight feet on the 13th after hitting it over the green.
“I have the confidence of having played well here last year when I finished joint runner-up. So this course is all about placing the ball well and putting. You need not hit the ball too long but you have to judge the wind well as the wind also plays a decisive role here.”
Trishul Chinnappa began his season with an eagle-two as he holed his approach from 117 yards on the par-4 first hole. Chinnappa added seven birdies and two bogeys thereafter.
Khalin Joshi, struggling with a neck injury coming into the tournament, too, began the tournament with an eagle when he rolled in his wedge shot from just off the green on his opening 10th hole. Joshi added seven birdies and two bogeys to his card joined Aman and Trishul in a three-way tie for second place.
Five players were bunched together in tied fifth with rounds of 65. This included Sri Lankan Mithun Perera, Mhow’s Om Prakash Chouhan, Ludhiana’s Pukhraj Singh Gill, Gurugram’s Veer Ahlawat and Kolkata’s Shankar Das.
Pune’s Udayan Mane, the 2018 Golconda Masters champion, returned a 68 to be tied 18th.
Former Indian hockey captain Dilip Tirkey, playing as a professional for the first time, produced a 10-over-81 to be placed 125th.
