Shamim Khan, leader after Round 1 a the Glade One Ahmedabad Open. Pic: PGTI
Ahmedabad, April 19: Shamim Khan, who has more than 25 wins on the Indian pro circuit, grabbed the early lead at the Ahmedabad Open 2023 presented by Glade One, a Rs. 1 crore event being played at the Glade One Golf Resort & Club.
The 44-year-old Shamim, a two-time PGTI Order of Merit winner, whose number of wins in India is exceeded only by Mukesh Kumar among current active players, shot 5-under 31 at the Par-36 Glade One course.
The first two rounds of the event comprise nine holes each. The cut will be applied after 18 holes. The third and fourth rounds will then comprise 18 holes each and the tournament will be played over a total of 54 holes. The par for the course in the first two rounds is 36.
Shamim (5-under) was followed by Sri Lankan Mithun Perera, Bangladesh’s Jamal Hossain, Delhi’s Kshitij Naveed Kaul, Faridabad’s Abhinav Lohan and Greater Noida’s Arjun Bhatti, were bunched in tied second place with scores of three-under 33.
The 44-year-old Shamim, who has finished in top-20 at the last two events, is looking for his first win since 2019. He birdied the second and third and then made three more birdie conversions between 10 and 30 feet.
Shamim said, “I hit some decent form of late. I’m now trying to build on that. Importantly, I made a couple of good putts early on in my round today that gave me the much-needed momentum. If you’re playing only nine holes, a good start is half the job done. I also managed to close it out well with birdies on the last two holes. Adjusting well to the green-speed will be the key here this week.”
Shravan Desai (35) occupying tied 17th position was the highest-placed among the Ahmedabad-based golfers.
