The Hindu : Sport / Golf : Ranjit snatches lead

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Friday, May 11, 2007
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Ranjit snatches lead

Special Correspondent

GURGAON: Driving long and straight in challenging conditions, Ranjit Singh breezed past Jyoti Randhawa and Australia's Richard Backwell with a stunning six-under 66 for a two-stroke lead on the opening day of the Rs. 65-lakh DLF Masters golf tournament at the DLF Golf and Country Club here on Thursday.

The 31-year-old from Chandigarh fired eight birdies against two bogeys to surprisingly head the leader-board on a day that produced just 15 sub-par scores with most professionals pointing to the unpredictably windy conditions and tricky greens for their high scores.

Tour leader Ashok Kumar played with a nagging injury to his left hand and found two double bogeys, three bogeys and four birdies for a 75, a score matched by Singapore's Lam Chih Bing. The duo of Gaurav Ghei and Shiv Kapur settled for par rounds.

Among those who did better were C. Muniyappa and Gaurav Diwan with a 69 each.

But the day belonged to Ranjit Singh, who owes his growth as golfer to all the support offered by friend and fellow-pro Amandeep Johl.

Consistency

"I hit the ball really well off the tee right through the day. Off the fairway too I was consistent," said Ranjit, who reached 15 greens in regulation and stroked 26 putts.

Starting from the 10th tee, Ranjit missed birdie putts on the 11th, 18th and the first hole and bogeyed the 13th and the eighth. The longest of his six birdies came on the fifth hole where he putted from 10 feet.

"Now that the pressure of making the `cut' is off, I am going to play freely and leave the rest to God," said Ranjit.

Bouncing back

Earlier, Randhwa led for the better part of the day. He bounced back from bogeys on the third and fifth holes to take the turn at 35 and then found three more birdies during his flawless homeward journey. Blackwell, who joined Randhawa late in the afternoon, picked up four shots over the last three holes as he signed off with a 14-foot `eagle' putt.

"Putting is going to hold the key on this course," said Randhawa who, as the Brand Ambassador of his home course, is expected to read it right. "Greens are pretty fast and I am getting used to it. It was windy but not hot. So I did not feel the heat until the last two holes," said Randhawa, who ended the round with two successive birdies, after missing an 8-foot `eagle' putt on the final hole.

Randhawa's playing partner Ghei could only manage a par round. His three-birdie-three-bogey card came after he missed a few putts, especially on the par-four fourth and fifth holes where he three-putted from 25 and 20 feet, respectively.

Ghei, playing on this course after over two years, was tentative on the fast greens and took his time to find the line of his shots on a couple of new tees added since he last played here.

The scores: Ranjit Singh 66, Richard Backwell (Aus) and Jyoti Randhawa 68; C. Muniyappa and Gaurav Diwan 69; Vijay Kumar, Himmat Singh Rai, Deepinder S. Khullar, Amardip Sinh Malik and Mukesh Kumar 70; Mohammad Salim, Digvijay Singh, S.S.P. Chowrasia, Harendra Gupta and Naman Dawar 71; Gurbaaz Mann, Shiv Kapur, Gaurav Ghei, M. Dharma, Randhir Singh Ghotra and Shamim Khan 72.

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