Chandigarh golfer Sandhu grabs second spot on opening day

The 22-year-old Sandhu sank six birdies, four of which came on the back-nine. A bogey on the seventh hole was the only blemish for Sandhu on a humid day.

“I had my tee off at noon and the main challenge was the humid conditions at Karnal. The course is playing soft due to the recent rains and there is no roll in the fairways apart from the greens being soft. My focus was to hit the ball straight and my putting was good today, which helped me post a low score. I hope I can continue like this in the remaining two rounds and win the title here,” said Sandhu.

As a result of rains one day prior to the event, the 14th and 15th holes, both par-4s, had been rendered unplayable for the whole tournament. Whereas, with all three rounds featuring 16 holes each, the par for the course was 62.

Sheoran, a two-time winner on the Feeder Tour, shot his best round of the season to take the honours on Wednesday. He started well with a tee shot and chip on the 10th hole where he tapped-in for birdie. His chipping came to his rescue once again on the 16th, where he managed to salvage a birdie with a five-foot conversion, despite an erratic drive.

On the front-nine, Sheoran picked up four more birdies to earn his place at the top of the leaderboard. His birdies on the front-nine included three quality up and downs on the second, fourth and sixth and a near perfect tee shot on the par-3 fifth that landed a foot from the flag.

“It is great to post my first ever error-free round in a tournament. The feel-good factor from this round should help me carry forward the form into the next two rounds. Everything just seemed to fall in place. I hit some brilliant drives, had some good chips and putted consistently,” said Sheoran.

Gurugram’s Kushal Singh occupied third place at four-under-58. Karnal golfers, Mani Ram and Ritesh Kumar, were both in joint 13th place with scores of even-par-62.