'The early bird catches the fish,' goes an adage. This was aptly proved by man-in-form Mukesh Kumar, who played in the first half of the day and submitted a card of five-under par 67 to grab a three-stroke lead in the Hero Honda Open South, at the Karnataka Golf Association in Bangalore on Tuesday.
Matloob Ahmed Rana and Javed Inayat, both from Pakistan and playing for the first time in the Garden City, were tied for second place at 70. Incidentally, both had finished first and second respectively in this year's Q-school in Pune.
Jyoti Randhawa, who crash-landed from Singapore early this morning, was tied for the fourth place along with three others -- Ajay Gupta, Karanjit Singh, and SSP Chowrasia at one-under par 71.
The only other player to record a par or a sub-par score was Harinder Gupta, who played a level-par round.
"The conditions are tough, somewhat similar to what I have been playing. I am here just to get back into my rhythm," admitted Randhawa. "It was after more than two months that I played in Singapore and had a good finish," he added.
Mukesh Kumar, fresh from his victory at Chennai last week, began from where he had left. On a day when strong wind and the fast greens proved to be the main obstacle for many of the professionals, the current `Champion Golfer of the Year' on the Amby Valley PGAI Tour, came almost unscathed, except for a bogey on the sixth, where he three-putted.
A 10th-tee starter, the 39-year-old opened with a birdie, the resultant of brilliant short game. Continuing in the same vein, the Mhow-based pro then made successive birdies on 13th and 14th, and on the latter he also had a long-range eagle chance. A 12-feet uphill putt on the third gave him his fourth birdie of the day while he once again missed an eagle on the par-5 fifth, where he missed it from 10 feet and settled for a birdie. On the penultimate hole came his best shot of the day, where on the par-3 eighth he sank a 15-footer left to right putt and then saved a par on the 9th to keep his score intact.
"The conditions are tough. It is not easy to get a par. The key was to keep the ball on the fairway," said Mukesh, who missed just two greens-in-regulation. "I am playing well and the victory last week has definitely has given me the confidence," he added.
Javed Inayat, who first played in India in 1995, hasn't had an outing to boast about in the subcontinent. Today, playing alongside Randhawa, he made an eagle-two on the par-4 third. With about 90 yards to the pin, the Pakistani, with a sand-wedge, thought of hitting it near the pin but actually holed it for an eagle. And on the next hole a perfect 7-iron shot landed him inches from the cup. The 38-year-old saved one more stroke on the sixth and took the turn at four-under. However, some bad driving forced him to incur three bogeys on the 10th, 14th and 17th.
"We also have a professional Tour but it is not lucrative enough," said Inayat, who belongs to the Karachi Golf Club. "We love to play in India but it is so difficult to get a visa. The Indian Tour is quite competitive and lucrative as well," he added.
Inayat's team mate Matloob, who turned pro when he was only 16, made three birdies in all on the 12th, first and ninth after starting from the tenth. The lone bogey came on the 16th.
Meanwhile, P Krishna with a eight-over 80, led the amateur field.
Top scores (after 18 holes) (Pro): 67 Mukesh Kumar; 70 Javed Inayat, Matloob Rana; 71 Ajay Gupta, Jyoti Randhawa, Karanjit Singh, SSP Chowrasia; 72 Harinder Gupta; 73 Ashok Kumar, C Muniyappa, Rahul Ganapathy, Sanjay Kumar; 74 C Kumar, Digvijay Singh, Mohd. Nawab, Monish Bindra, Yusuf Ali. Amateurs: 80 P Krishna; 83 Jaibeer Singh; 84 Hitesh Joshi.
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