The Hindu : Sport : Randhawa misses chance to share lead

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Randhawa misses chance to share lead

Rakesh Rao

Bain, Carolan ahead by a shot, Chowrasia cards a par

GREATER NOIDA: Jyoti Randhawa signed off with his only bogey and slipped to the tied third place on an otherwise ordinary opening day for the Indian professionals in $400,000 SAIL Open golf championship at the Jaypee Greens course here on Wednesday.

Scotland’s Ross Bain stayed atop the leaderboard for the better part of the day after shooting a six-under 66 until Australia’s Tony Carolan joined him following his seventh birdie.

Creditably, the Dubai-based Bain has the distinction of playing all four rounds of the British Open last year when his more illustrious countrymen Colin Montgomerie and former champion Paul Lawrie failed to make the ‘cut’.

Promising turn

Starting the round from the 10th tee, Randhawa straightway fired an ‘eagle’ and picked up two birdies to take the turn at a promising 32.

On the inward nine, Randhawa birdied the 11th and the 16th holes to go six-under even after missing a birdie-opportunity on the 13th hole for the day. However, the blemish on the final hole brought Randhawa down.

Randhawa can draw consolation by looking at Adam Groom’s card. The Australian led the field at seven-under after 10 holes but bogeyed the 16th and 18th to be tied third, like Randhawa and four others.

Bain fired an ‘eagle’ and four birdies, including two on the front-nine, to bring in the day’s best card. Later, Carolan more than made up for his lone bogey on the 15th by firing birdies on the 16th and the 18th holes.

On a day when the course played true, the greens played slower than expected. The day saw 50 sub-par cards and left most of the 66 Indians in danger of not making the ‘cut’ on Thursday evening.

S.S.P. Chowarsia picked up birdies on the last two holes for a par round and showed that he had not lost his focus under the new-found pressure since winning the Indian Masters 10 days ago.

Seven straight pars

Following seven straight pars, Chowrasia bogeyed the eighth and the ninth holes after hitting the greenside bunkers. After the turn, Chowarasia again met par seven times in succession. He chipped in for a birdie on the 17th hole after a 4-iron left him short of the green. He picked up another shot on the 18th from under two feet after unleashing the driver and 7-iron.

“The greens did not hold today,” said Chowrasia flashing his customary smile and continued, “my hitting and putting were bad today but I am not sad about my score. I look forward to an improved round on Thursday.”

Matching Chowrasia’s card were Gaurav Ghei, Anirban Lahiri, Rahul Ganapathy, Randhir Ghotra, Naman Dawar, Vivek Bhandari, Mukesh Kumar and Gaurav Diwan. Currently, the ‘cut’ is projected at even par.

The scores (Indians unless stated): Ross Bain (Sco) and Tony Carolan (Aus) 66; Lam Chih Bing (Sin), Peter Cooke (Aus), Dinesh Chand (Fij), Adam Groom (Aus), Jyoti Randhawa and Scott Hend (Aus) 67; Will Yanagisawa (USA), Dinesh Kumar, Noh Seung Yul (Kor), Wu Ashun (Chn), Angelo Que (Phi) and Danny Chia (Mas) 68; Vinod Kumar, Yasin Ali (Eng), Zhang Lian-Wei (Chn), Beg Leong (Mas), Mark Brown (Nzl), Wang Ter-Chang (Tpe), Kim Young Jin (Kor), Ali Sher, Harinder Gupta, Bae Sang Moon and Gaurav Pratap Singh 69; Neven Basic (Aus), Lloyd Saltman (Sco), Richard Gallichan (Aus), Gaganjeet Bhullar, Ashok Kumar, Raj Randhawa, Karanjit Singh, Taichiro Kiyota (Jpn), David Brandsdon (Aus), Kane Webber (Aus) Kodai Ichihara (Jpn) and Rhys Davies (Wal) 70.

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