The Hindu : Sport / Golf : Chopra tied eighth; Kapur joint 18th

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Friday, Nov 16, 2007
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Sport - Golf

Chopra tied eighth; Kapur joint 18th

Hong Kong: Indian-born Swede Daniel Chopra fired an opening round of four-under 66 to be tied eighth, while Shiv Kapur kicked off his campaign with a solid 67 for a share of the 18th place in the $2.25 million Hong Kong Open golf here on Thursday.

Chopra birdied the 10th, 11th and 13th holes, but his rhythm was snapped by a dropped shot on the 15th and he took the turn at two-under.

On resumption, he bogeyed the first hole, but fired birdies on the third, fourth and seventh to make amends.

Meanwhile, Kapur had a great start as he birdied the 12th, 13th, 15th and 17th before stumbling on his first bogey on the 18th.

When he resumed, he dropped two more bogeys on the first and fifth, but managed to keep things under control by picking up a shot each on the third and seventh.

South Korea’s K.J. Choi blasted an eight-under 62 to grab the opening round lead ahead of Garry Houston of Wales. Among other Indians in the fray, S.S.P. Chowrasia carded 69 to be tied 50th, while Rahul Gangjee and Amandeep Johl turned in identical rounds of one-over 70 to be joint 82nd.

Gaurav Ghei slumped to tied 131st after going four-over 75.

Jeev tied 10th

At Miyazaki (Japan), Jeev Milkha Singh got off to a decent start by firing an opening round of two-under 68 for the tied 10th place in the Dunlop Phoenix tournament on Thursday.

He parred the first seven holes for a cautious start and followed it with back-to-back birdies to round off his front stretch at two-under.

His back stretch saw a remarkable string of nine par shots as Jeev went on to complete his round without any blemish in the card and join 11 others including defending champion Padraig Harrington at the 10th spot.

Identical rounds

The trio of Ian Poulter, Kyung-Tae Kim and Toshinori Muto returned identical rounds of five-under 65 to share the top slot, one stroke ahead of Gonzales Fdez Castano and Chris Campbell duo. — PTI

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