By IANS,
Greater Noida : Anirban Lahiri set the pace on day one of the BILT Open golf with a magnificent bogey-free seven under 65 at the Jaypee Greens Golf Resort here Thursday.
Lahiri is currently at the top of the leaderboard as only 96 professionals out of a total of 118 could complete round one Thursday due to a one and a half hour delay due to fog in the morning.
Rahil Gangjee carded six under 66 to be second while Jeev Milkha Singh and Shamim Khan are joint third with scores of five under 67.
Lahiri began with a birdie on the first and then went on to knock down two more on the fifth and seventh to make the turn at three under. The Bangalore-based professional made four birdies on the back nine – 11th, 12th, 15th and 16th, to close with a 65.
“I made 16 regulations today and sank most of the putts. The birdie on the par five 12th stood out as I landed my third shot just a few inches short of the pin. The course is in excellent shape and has never played better. The scoring is likely to be low because the rough is down and recovering from a tough situation would not be very difficult,” said Lahiri.
Gangjee fired another bogey-free round for second place on day one. Gangjee got off to a dream start with birdies on the first two holes. He then came up with four more birdies on the fourth, 12th, 15th and 18th to finish the day at six under 66, one stroke off the lead.
Asia Tour’s Order of Merit winner Jeev is currently in tied third place, having shot five under 67. He started from the 10th tee, then birdied the 12th, 13th, 15th, second, fourth, fifth, seventh and bogeyed the 10th and third.
“It was a pretty solid round for me today. I missed only two greens today and made bogeys on those very holes. The birdie on the par three seventh was special because my tee shot rolled past the flag and thereafter the ball came back towards the pin due to the slope,” he said.
Shamim Khan also shot 67 to join Jeev in tied third place. Jyoti Randhawa, Gaganjeet Bhullar, S.S.P. Chowrasia, Shiv Kapur, Gaurav Ghei and Mohammed Siddikur Rahman are all tied fifth with identical first round scores of four under 68.