Patel, Chowrasia in lead; big names falter

MUMBAI, MARCH 29. It was a day of the underdogs at the Rs. 5.5 lakh BPGC Open with Devendra Patel and Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia shooting into the lead at the suburban course in the east of the city. Patel, from Mhow, and the Calcuttan Chowrasia made the most of an indifferent opening day from the big names, scoring a three-under 67 each to top the leaderboard together.

Chandigrah's rookie pro Harmeet Kahlon and a local golfer, Jagdish Angre, were tied for third place with two-under 68 and two other golfers - Amritinder Singh of Chandigarh and Calcutta's Chini Ali - were in fifth place at one-under 69.

Patel had done well recently in his hometown, finishing sixth in the Eicher Central India Open. In fact, the Mhow pro was six- under at the 16th, but stumbled badly on the par 3 17th with a triple bogey. It was a rare bad patch on a day when he did exceptionally well, needing only 22 putts to complete the round, including a sensational eagle from the bunker on the par-5 16th.

But on the 17th, the triple bogey from the bunker cost him the chance to put some distance between himself and Chowrasia. He said, ``My hitting was very good and so was my putting. It was like a dream day till I got buried in the 17th bunker.''

Chowrasia, runner-up at last year's Indian Open, was not happy with his game despite his score today. ``My short game is in a mess. The truth is I am playing horrible golf at the moment and I just got lucky today,'' he said. Today, Chowrasia missed two chip-putts for par and three-putted on the third hole for three bogies which somewhat nullified his good iron play which had resulted in six birdies in the round.

The local pro Angre reeled off 11 straight pars before making a birdie on the 12th hole. He went on to bogey the 13th but finished the day two-under thanks to birdies on the 15th and 18th holes.

Harmeet, far ahead of other rookie pros in the Mahindra Rookie of the Year award, refused to consider the heat as a vital factor when discussing his two-under round. ``After Thailand last week, this place feels like Shimla,'' the 28-year- old from Chandigarh said. Harmeet, who started from the 10th tee, made back-to-back birdies on the 11th and 12th holes and went three-under with another on the par-5 first. He produced two bogies in a row on the fifth and sixth holes but was able to recover with a birdie on the seventh.

As for the leading contenders for top honours in the Order of Merit and the Mahindra Golfer of the Year awards, it was an unfruitful day on the par-70 course. Two-time Mahindra Award winner Vijay Kumar and this year's leader on the Mahindra Rankings, Mukesh Kumar, failed to turn in competitive cards. Mukesh went three-over and was tied at the 15th spot with Indian Open winner Feroz Ali while Mukesh was further behind at joint 23rd with a four-over 74.

The scores (after 18 holes): Devendra Patel, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (67); Harmeet Kahlon, Jagdish Angre (68); Amritinder Singh, Chini Ali (69); Shiv Prakash, Digvijay Singh, Basad Ali, Ali Sher (70); Vishal Singh, Rohtas Singh, Akbar Ali (71); Gurki Shergill (72); Babu Ahmed, Feroz Ali, Gast Ram, Pappan, Mukesh Kumar, Prakash Kubde, Rafiq Ali, Vivek Bhandari (73); Amateurs: Ratan Bali, Jaideep Patwardhan (75); Rohit Goyal (77), Shubhankar Sen, Rajiv Datar (78).

- Our Special Correspondent

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