Ghei in joint lead

SRINAGAR, OCT. 4. A rejuvenated Gaurav Ghei fired a four-under- par 68 to take a share of the lead on the opening day of the Rs. 15 lakh Sher-e-Kashmir Open golf tournament at the Royal Springs Golf Club course here on Thursday.

In the first `major' on the Hero Honda Indian Golf Tour, Ghei caught fire on his back nine. He was tied for the top position with Sheeraz Kalra of Lucknow and Jaiveer Virk of Delhi.

The leading trio enjoyed a two-stroke advantage over a quality crowd at tied fourth place that included Jyoti Randhawa, Vijay Kumar, Mukesh Kumar, Rohtas Singh and Ranjit Singh. Five players were tied for ninth place at 71.

Starting the day from the 10th tee, Ghei made the turn at one- over with bogeys on the 10th and 18th and a birdie on the 17th. But he was in fine form on the inward nine. He birdied the par-3 second, the fourth and then sank a 25-footer birdie putt on the par-3 fifth and came in with successive birdies on the eighth and ninth.

The 27-year-old Kalra, winner of this season's Q- school began and finished his round with bogeys but packed six birdies in between. Virk was the surprise leader. The 22-year-old used his short irons brilliantly and drained every putt in the range of 12-feet.

Ashfaq Ahmed and Ghalib Shah both made eagle twos on the par-4 fourth but it was Ashfaq who took the lead with a 74. Ghalib had an unfortunate triple bogey on his final hole on finish at 76.

lThe scores: Gaurav Ghei, Jaiveer Virk, Sheeraz Kalra 68; Jyoti Randhawa, Ranjit Singh, Rohtas Singh, Vijay Kumar, Mukesh Kumar 70; Dinesh Raghuvanshi, Shamim Khan, Rafiq Ali, Pradeep Kumar, Feroz Ali 71; Gurki Shergill, Vinod Kumar, Rahul Ganapathy, Monish Bindra, K.P.S. Shekhon 72.

Amateurs: Ashfaq Ahmed 74, Ghalib Shah 76, Suhail Khanday 82.

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