By IANS
New Delhi : Shiv Kapur knows a thing or two about shooting low scores at the Delhi Golf Club, his home course, where he holds the record of 10-under 62, but came back with a fine four-under 68 that gave him a share of early lead on the first day of the EMAAR-MGF Indian Masters.
But Kapur also firmly put his tongue in cheek and remarked, “Golfers are very greedy people, we’re never happy, you get off the golf course shooting 62 saying, ‘it could have been a couple better.”
More realistically, he added, “My putting was pretty good. Whatever realistic birdie opportunities I gave myself, I made the majority of those, so I’m happy about that. There’s always room for improvement.”
Kapur rebounded from a none-too-memorable start where he had two bogeys in his first four holes, to a great looking four-under 68 that put him as the best Indian in the first part of the day, which also saw Arjun Atwal (70) and Jeev Milkha SIngh (77) come back with mixed results.
The 68 notwithstanding, Kapur also added, “Actually, it was a pretty scratchy round. I managed to pull a 68 out of nothing really. I started off on the back nine and it was quite a seesaw, lots of birdies and lots of bogeys. Wasn’t really settled in and I wasn’t swinging too well.”
He was also lucky on the 14th, where he seemed headed for the trees. “(I) got a good break on 14 when it bounced out of the trees and made birdie. And I didn’t find my swing until the front nine, which was my back nine.”
“It was one of those days of grinding it out and being patient and making things happen. I guess you can’t complain. 68 is a pretty good start, but just the way I played, making seven birdies, I would have hoped for a better round really. ”
When asked if he could see a repeat of his record-setting 62, Kapur was honest, “Obviously a round like 62 comes around, you know, once in a blue moon so to speak; if I can do that at the right week, that would be great. You know, that’s not something you try and think about. But realistically, if I can get close to that, I’ll be pretty happy.”
On the course, Kapur said, “The course is exactly what I was saying yesterday. You know, you keep the ball in play, you give yourself a lot of birdie opportunities, and I managed to do that for my last sort of 10 or 11 holes.
“I’ve actually set forward a goal that, you know, par for the course for me is 68, because all of the par 5s are reachable for me. So if I can just shoot 68 every day, I think I’ll be in contention come Sunday.”
On where he says the Indian players this week, Kapur added, “I think you’ll see a lot of Indian players on the leaderboard. I haven’t taken a look, but they are comfortable in these conditions and know the course better. And like I said yesterday, they have not had much of an off‑season so they are all pretty sharp. At the end of the day, I wouldn’t be surprised if we have three or four Indians in the Top‑10.”
The ambitious Kapur, who is still looking for his first win in Europe, said, “It’s tough to set a score. It just depend on the conditions and how cold it is, if you get a wind, this course can be pretty tricky and 68 is par for me and the par 5s I played at par 4s, and if I can keep doing that, I’ll be pretty happy.”