Randhawa leads; Bhullar, Himmat at tied second

Gurgaon: Ace Indian golfer Jyoti Randhawa shot a clinical five-under 67 to emerge as the leader after round one of the DLF Masters 2010 golf tournament here on Thursday.

Defending champion Gaganjeet Bhullar, Himmat Singh Rai and Karanjit Singh Sandhu fired identical four-under 68 to lie in tied second place at the DLF Golf and Country Club here. Randhawa, the two-time DLF Masters champion, got off to a flying start at his home course on Thursday as he made six birdies against a lone bogey.Randhawa, a 10th tee starter, made birdies on the 12th, 16th, 17th and a bogey on the 13th to be two-under at the turn. Fresh from a recent top-10 finish on the European Tour, Randhawa consolidated further on the front nine with birdies on the first, fourth and sixth. “This is a very good start to the tournament. I have been playing in Europe for the last few weeks so in that context I feel I adapted to the conditions pretty quickly,” Randhawa said. “I hit my iron shots really close today and also putted well. The rain came down for a brief period during the middle of my round but it didn’t affect me. In fact, I made birdies immediately before and after the rain. “The highlights of my round were a good par save on the 10th where I hit my nine-iron third shot to within a few inches of the pin and the birdie on the par-five sixth where I was two-on and then two-putted for birdie,” he added.Bhullar birdied the second, ninth, 15th and 18th holes to bring home a bogey-free 68 to be tied second and the Punjab lad said it was a good start to the tournament. “I hit it long today. My best drive was on the 15th where I hit it about 350 yards. It’s a good start to the tournament and gives me a great launch-pad for the rest of the week,” Bhullar said. Himmat Singh Rai and Karanjit Singh Sandhu, both from the DLF Golf and Country Club, joined Bhullar in tied second place as they too shot scores of 68, thanks to some brilliant hitting. Himmat made 17 regulations in a round that included five birdies and a bogey. Karanjit also had five birdies and a bogey and made 16 regulations. SSP Chowrasia, Rahil Gangjee, Vinod Kumar and Digvijay Singh lie tied fifth at three-under 69. Anirban Lahiri, Mukesh Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Chiragh Kumar, Gaurav Pratap Singh and Shankar Das share the ninth position after carding two-under 70. PTI