Golconda Masters: Ravi, Saarthak and Akshay in lead

Ravi Kumar, Saarthak Chhibber and Akshay Neranjen, the leading trio shot scores of seven-under 63 at the Par-70 after the opening round of the Rs 1 crore Telangana Golconda Masters on Thursday.

Hyderabad: Ravi Kumar of Chandimandir, Haryana, Delhi’s Saarthak Chhibber and Bengaluru’s Akshay Neranjen shared the first-round lead at the Rs 1 crore IGPL Telangana Golconda Masters, powered by DSR Builders & Developers. The leading trio shot scores of seven-under 63 at the Par-70 Hyderabad Golf Association (HGA) golf course on Thursday.

Bengaluru’s Aryan Roopa Anand and Delhi’s Sachin Baisoya returned cards of six-under 64 to be tied for fourth. It was an overcast day with the threat of rain looming large. Fortunately, the day only witnessed a slight drizzle for a short duration with no stoppage in play.

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Ravi Kumar, a 10th tee starter on day one, scored seven birdies and didn’t drop any shots thanks to his exceptional wedge play. While Ravi’s chipping was the highlight of his round, the 29-year-old pro, fighting to save his card for next season also played an outstanding approach on the eighth to set up a birdie there.

Ravi, who is known to use his 2-iron instead of a rescue club, said, “It’s a really important week for me as I’m outside the top-60 of the Order of Merit at the moment and if I capitalize on this good start, it could help me gain a lot of ground. I did well on the tee today by finding most fairways and that helped eliminate the errors as the rough is quite thick here at the HGA this time. My chipping was also brilliant. “I’ve done well over the first two days at the HGA in the past but have slipped thereafter. I need to make sure to avoid a repeat of that this time around.”

Saarthak Chhibber too shot a bogey-free 63 to be co-leader. The 24-year-old Saarthak, enjoying one of his best seasons on the PGTI with three top-10s including a runner-up finish, landed it within six feet for six of his seven birdies. He never looked in any sort of trouble and sank his longest putt of the day, a 20-footer for birdie on the 15th, to make it a run of five consecutive birdies on the back-nine.

Chhibber, currently 19th on the TATA Steel PGTI Ranking, said, “I’m happy that I continued with my consistent scoring. This is one of my favourite tracks and this week provides me a great opportunity to build on the momentum I gained in the first half of the season. “The course is playing great despite the heavy rains recently. The course staff deserves all the credit for providing us excellent playing conditions despite the challenges faced by them.”