SCORESHEET

December 8th 2010, Mumbai, India: Delhi’s Karanjit Singh Sandhu shot a whirlwind seven under 63 on day one of the CG Open to establish a three-stroke lead. Ashok Kumar of Delhi, Pune’s Dinesh Raghuvanshi and Sujjan Singh of Chandigarh are in tied second at four under 66.

Karanjit Singh Sandhu got off to a blazing start as he birdied the first, second and fourth. He sank a 12-footer on the second and produced two spectacular chip shots to set up birdies on the first and fourth. A missed chip-putt led to bogey on the fifth and he thus made the turn at two under.

Sandhu, who has posted two top-10s on the Aircel PGTI this season, gave a display of some magnificent hitting on the back nine as his tee shots landed within 10 feet on the three par 3s – 10th, 13th and 17th. He converted all these birdie putts and went on to add two more birdies with a couple of excellent bunker shots on the 16th and 18th.

Karanjit Singh Sandhu

The Delhi-based golfer’s first round score of 63 equaled the course record for a single round set by Gurbaaz Mann earlier this year.

Karanjit said, “I got off to a solid start and was hitting it well through the day. The putts rolled in for me today. This is my lowest score at a professional event so it is the ideal start to the week.

“I have always enjoyed playing on this course. One has to be patient on this course and being too aggressive does not help. The greens are in great shape. The birdie that stood out for me today came on the par-three 17th where I landed my tee shot within six feet of the pin. The 17th is not an easy hole and sinking a birdie there gave me a lot of confidence when I stood on the 18th tee.”

Ashok Kumar, Dinesh Raghuvanshi and Sujjan Singh share second position at four under 66. Sujjan’s round featured an eagle, six birdies and four bogeys. Ashok and Dinesh fired six birdies against two bogeys in their respective rounds.

As many as eight golfers, including Mandeo Singh Pathania, Vinod Kumar, Ajeetesh Sandhu, Digvijay Singh, Vivek Bhandari, Harendra Gupta, Akshay Butta and Rafick Ali Mollah share fifth place at three under 67.