The seasoned Gaurav Pratap Singh of Noida and 22-year-old Sunhit Bishnoi of Gurugram each carded six-under-66 to emerge the joint leaders on the opening day of the India Cements Pro golf championship at the Cosmo-TNGF course here on Wednesday.
Seven others were within one shot of the lead in tied third place at five-under 67, that showed how close the contest was.
Gaurav’s fine strokeplay saw him produce seven birdies and a bogey. The 39-year-old, currently sixth on the TATA Steel PGTI Rankings, produced some good iron shots to pocket couple of birdies on the back-nine.
He then enjoyed a nice short run with five straight birdies from the 18th to the fourth, where he set up three tap-ins. His lone bogey came on the fifth.
“A win is always a huge boost. After the long-awaited victory in April, I’m obviously playing with a different mindset now. During the mid-season break, I worked on some aspects of my game and changed couple of things, that have also helped me. I was hitting my irons close today and reaped the rewards,” said Gaurav.
Sunhit, who turned professional last year, also garnered seven birdies and a bogey.
The highlight was the tee shot on the par-4 third hole that landed just short of the green and led to a two-putt for a birdie.
Sunhit said: “I capitalised on my good wedge shots today. I come into the week with a lot of confidence in my short-game.”
The results:
1. Gaurav Pratap Singh, Sunhit Bishnoi (6-under 66); 3. Pukhral Singh Gill, Ankur Chadha, Jairaj Singh Sandhu, N. Thangaraja, K. Prabagaran, Jamal Hossain, Arjun Prasad (all 5-under 67).
