It takes two to tango to produce a superlative performance in the world of Golf and take your nation a notch higher. India’s Anirban Lahiri and Gaganjeet Bhullar hit the right note together when they registered an eight-under-par 64 to trail by two shots at the ISPS HANDA Melbourne World Cup of Golf today.

 

 

 

 

The talented pair, who also represented India at the 2013 World Cup of Golf, took advantage of their fine form to sign for a flawless card highlighted by eight birdies at The Metropolitan Golf Club.

 

 

They trail leaders Korea (Byeonghun An and Siwoo Kim), England (Tyrell Hatton and Ian Poulter) and Australia (Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith) by two shots in tied-seventh place.

 

 

 

 

Lahiri and Bhullar hailed their great collaboration as they managed to feed off the positive energy from each other to put themselves in contention at the prestigious US$7 million event, which is celebrating its 59th edition this week.

 

 

The duo hopes to leverage their strengths effectively as they head into the Foursomes (alternate shot) match on Friday, where they will play alongside Team Ireland’s Shane Lowry and Paul Dunne.

 

 

Team India is part of the six two-man Asian teams in the field vying to hoist the famous trophy in the event, won previously by many legends of the games. Team Malaysia (Ben Leong and Gavin Green) trails the leading trio by one shot in tied-fourth place while Team Japan (Satoshi Kodaira and Hideto Tanihara) and Team China (Li Haotong and Wu Ashun) are tied in 12th following matching 66s.

 

Team Thailand of Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Prom Meesawat came in a further shot back in tied-19th following a 67.

 

 

 

 

Anirban Lahiri was quoted saying, “We really enjoyed ourselves. We're both playing good so it was easy for us to be aggressive. It was nice to finish with a birdie on the last. I think both of us felt like we should have made at least two or three coming in. Missed a few opportunities there, but this format is like that, you have to get on a run.  If you make one birdie, it kind of motivates both the players to get more aggressive and one birdie leads to another birdie.  It's like you just have to stay in that frame of mind.”

 

 

Gaganjeet Bhullar, said, “We both played well today. We had good tee shots and we gave ourselves a lot of good opportunities on the greens. I think it's a decent start to the tournament. The key is hitting all the fairways, all of the greens and holing most of the putts.

 

That’s what our goal is going to be. It was a good teamwork, with our caddies as well. They did a great job today. It's like a team play. You know, just go out there, have fun and give our 100 percent.”

 

(Asian Tour Release)