Sport

Two-stroke lead for Randhawa

NEW DELHI: Ernie Els and Jyoti Randhawa, the two most followed players at the Delhi Golf Club course on Thursday, provided the spectators occupying the specially-built grandstand on the 18th hole contrasting reasons to remember their play.

Much to the bewilderment of those following Els, the South African hit a rare quadruple bogey on the par-five hole to lose his way and card a three-over 75.

Hours later, Randhawa found an eagle on the 545-yard hole to pluck a two-stroke lead over England’s Richard Finch and Ireland’s Damien McGrane. Overall, the opening round’s action in the $2.5 million Emaar MGF Indian Masters golf was gripping.

On a day that saw 39 sub-par cards and left Els and Jeev Milkha Singh staring at the possibility of missing the cut, Randhawa led the pack with a bogey-free 65. Shiv Kapur shot a 68 to share the fourth spot with two others.

Bangalore’s C. Muniyappa, who sank a hole-in-one from 201 yards on the par-three 12th, brought in a 69 to share the seventh spot with nine others.

Among the Indians, Digvijay was the first two shoot an eagle and move to sole lead at five-under after 10 holes. But he dropped three shots on the back-nine. Later it was his brother-in-law Randhawa who produced the day’s best card.

Randhawa, who teed-off in the afternoon, showed how to tackle this tricky course. He played percentage golf, created chances for saving shots and got aggressive when he sensed a chance to birdie. The seasoned pros on the European Tours were still fathoming the degree of difficulty offered by this deceptively simple-looking course while Randhawa was riding on his experience to find two back-nine eagles after three birdies.

Before Randhawa hogged the spotlight, the talking point was Els’s struggle on the 18th. Ironically, Ernie’s quadruple bogey came on a hole which is considered a birdie hole.

Els’s tee-shot landed around the 280-yard mark, short of the fairway bunker. He then drove his three-wood into the bushes on the left. Faced with an unplayable lie, Els took a penalty drop. He tried to pitch out but the shot caught the branch of a tree and stayed in the bushes.

For the second time, Els took a penalty drop and pitched short of the green before two putting from about 10 feet. This was Els’s second quadruple bogeyed in two less than two months. He needed seven strokes on the par-three 13th hole during a final-day card of 69 in the South Africa Airways Open on December 16 last year.

Starting from the 10th tee, Els began with a bogey and collected another on the 12th. He came roaring back with three successive birdies before things went dramatically wrong on the 18th. Undeterred, Els took the turn and straightaway birdied the 10th and the 11th holes. But bogeys on the fifth and ninth holes spoilt his card.

Jeev, the other big name to disappoint, started with an encouraging birdie on the 10th. Thereafter, he struggled with his shot-making and putting to bogey six times for a 77.

Overall, the Indians made their presence felt in a telling manner with Harmeet Kahlon, S.S.P. Chowrasia, Arjun Atwal and Digvijay Singh (70 each), and Ashok Kumar, Rahil Gangjee (72 each), Amandeep Johl, Mukesh Kumar, Shamim Khan (73 each), Randhir Singh Ghotra and Naman Dawar (74 each) looking good to make cut presently projected to come at two-over 146 on Friday evening.

Apart from Jeev, other Prominent Indian professionals who need to play out of their skins to make the cut are Gaurav Ghei (75), Vijay Kumar and Rahul Ganapathy (76 each).

The scores (Indians unless stated): Jyoti Randhawa 65; Richard Finch (Eng), Damien McGrane (Ire) 67; Thomas Bjorn (Den), Shiv Kapur, Jose Manuel Lara (Esp) 68; Hendrick Buhrmann (RSA), C. Muniyappa, Benn Barham (Eng), Maarten Lafeber (Ned), Graeme McDowell (NIR), Raphael Jacquelin (Fra), Alvaro Quiros Garcia (Esp), David Lynn (Eng), Chinnarat Phadungsil (Tha), Mark O’Meara (US) 69; Arjun Atwal, Simon Yates (Sco), Keith Horne (RSA), Sam Little (Eng), Magnus Carlsson (Swe), Hendrik Nystrom (Swe), Simon Khan (Eng), S.S.P. Chowrasia, Jong-Yul Suk (Kor), Harmeet Kahlon and Digvijay Singh 70.

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