By IANS
Sentosa : It was nightmarish day for the Indian contenders seeking to play in the British Open golf as they were placed way behind after the first round of the two-round International Final Qualifying-Asia Tuesday.
Amandeep Johl was the best among Indians with a round of two-over 74 which was five shots off the leaders – Malaysia’s Danny Chia, Angelo Que of the Philippines and England’s Yasin Ali.
Chia, Que and Ali shot 69 each and took a giant step towards the British Open.
Shiv Kapur and Digvijay Singh shot 75 each while Jyoti Randhawa and Rahil Gangjee shot 77 each and Gurbaaz Mann 82.
Chia, an Asian Tour regular, sank six birdies against three bogeys at the Sentosa Golf Club’s Serapong course while Que enjoyed five birdies on the card for his strong start.
Big-hitting Ali was poised for the sole lead as he stood on the 18th tee at five-under but found the watery grave with an errant drive, which led to a double bogey.
Filipino Antonio Lascuna, Ben Leong of Malaysia, who enjoyed a hole-in-one, and Japanese duo Tomohiro Kondo and Keiichiro Fukabori shot identical 70s to stay in the hunt for the four tickets at stake to The Open at Royal Birkdale, England, in July at the two-day qualifier.
First round scores:
69: Danny Chia (Mas), Angelo Que (Phi), Yasin Ali (Eng) 70: Antonio Lascuna (Phi), Tomohiro Kondo (Jpn), Keiichiro Fukabori (Jpn), Ben Leong (Mas) 71: Chinnarat Phadungsil (Tha), Gavin Flint (Aus), Jason King (Aus), Yoshinobu Tsukada (Jpn), Brad Kennedy (Aus), Prom Meesawat (Tha), Will Yanagisawa (US) 72: Airil Rizman (Mas), Mars Pucay (Phi), Han Lee (US), Scott Barr (Aus), Chung Joon (S. Korea), Young Nam (US), Lam Chih Bing (Sin), Juvic Pagunsan (Phi), Brett Bingham (Can) 73: Lee Sung (S. Korea), David Bransdon (Aus), Takuya Taniguchi (Jpn), Tatsuhiko Ichihara (Jpn), Anthony Kang (US), Adam Blyth (Aus)
74: Mardan Mamat (Sin), Jun Kikuchi (Jpn), Bryan Saltus (US), Amandeep Johl (Ind), Park Jun-won (Kor), Sushi Ishigaki (Jpn) 75: Shiv Kapur (Ind), Olle Nordberg (Swe), Adam Groom (Aus), Ahmad Dan Bateman (Can), Richard Moir (Aus), Zaw Moe (Myn), David Gleeson (Aus),
Digvijay Singh (Ind), Tony Carolan (Aus) 76: Craig Smith (Wal), Ross Bain (Sco), Shinichi Yokota (Jpn), Akinori Tani (Jpn), Tadahiro Takayama (Jpn) 77: Noh Seung-yul (S. Korea), Marcus Both (Aus), Rahil Gangjee (Ind), Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 78: Simon Dunn (Sco), Naoya Takemoto (Jpn), Rhys Davies (Wal), Soushi Tajima (Jpn) 79: Masaya Tomida (Jpn) 80: S. Sivachandran (Mas) 82: Gurbaaz Mann (Ind)