Randhawa misses joint top-lead at the doorstep

Scotsman Ross Bain and Australian Tony Carolan started off their campaign quite well as they used the tailor-made conditions of the wide-open greens on a warm sunny day to be placed at joint top spot after carding the opening day with a score of six-under 66 in the US $ 400,000 SAIL Open Championship that teed off at the Jaypee Greens here on Wednesday.

One of the big pre-tournament favourites from India Jyoti Randhawa, who always performs well in the wide fairways of this golf course missed a five-foot for par in his final hole of the day, to miss the jointly shared lead by a whisker.

Bain, 32, and Carolan, 39, in quest of their maiden Asian Tour wins, shot six-under each and while there were another six players trailing behind them, who carded five-under 67 each.

Out of these six, three who are in third place after round one were Australians, but otherwise it was a Pan-Asia leaderboard with another six players at four-under 68. Of the six at 67 each, there were three Australians and one each from India (Randhawa), Fiji (Dinesh Chand) and Singapore (Lam Chih Bing).

The six players tied at ninth were all from countries with one each from Malaysia, Philippines, China, Korea, India and the US.

Randhawa and Lam Chih Bing have once each on the course, which in the Past has hosted the flagship event of the Indian Professional Golf Tour of India.

"I like this course as I have won once and finished second to Randhawa in the past," said Lam Chih, who had five birdies and no bogeys for a flawless card.

Up ahead on the leaderboard, Ross Bain, who went through the qualifying school earlier this year, shot a bogey-free six-under 66 to take early lead. Bain's round of six under 66 included an eagle on the 12th and birdies on the fourth, eighth, 15th and 16th.

"It was a pretty solid round. I did have some poor shots on the front nine, but got away with it as there is not much rough," said the Dubai-based Scot

"I felt I could go lower today, but had a lip-out on the 17th and left my putt hanging on the hole on the 18th," he added before predicting a low-scoring tournament.

Title favourite Randhawa was on fire starting with an eagle two, as he almost drove the green on the short 354-yard par-4 tenth hole, from where he started the day's action.

He was just about 10 feet short of the green but decided to use the putter and holed it.

He then sank birdies on the 13th and 18th to be four under at the turn.

Randhawa later birdied the second and the seventh, but dropped a shot on the ninth. "I went into the left trees and came out pretty well, but missed a short five-foot putt for par," he said.

"It was a good start, but disappointing to finish with a bogey on the ninth," said Randhawa, who loves the wide-open course, where he can hit the ball as long as you can.

"As for the course, well when you feel a little disappointed after shooting a five-under, that says all about the course."

Behind Randhawa, the next best Indian surprisingly was Dinesh Kumar, who brought home a four-under 68 to be tied ninth. Four other Indians, veteran Ali Sher, Harinder Gupta, Vinod Kumar and unheralded Gaurav Pratap Singh were all at three-under 69.

SSP Chowrasia, making his first appearance after winning Emaar-MGF Indian Masters, had a relatively calm day with an even par 72 that placed him 51st place in a bunch with 32 others including seasoned Gaurav Ghei, Amandeep Johl, Harmeet Kahlon and youngsters Anirban Lahiri and Rahul Ganapathy.

On his day’s play Chowrasia said, "My hitting and putting were not good today. I paid the penalty for landing my strokes in the bunker on the eighth and ninth but then came back well with birdies on the 17th and 18th."

SCORES AFTER ROUND ONE

Ross Bain (Sco) and Tony Carolan (Aus) 66; Lam Chih Bing (Sin), Peter Cooke (Aus), Dinesh Chand (Fij), Adam Groom (Aus), Jyoti Randhawa and Scott Hend (Aus) 67; Will Yanagisawa (USA), Dinesh Kumar, Noh Seung Yul (Kor), Wu Ashun (Chn), Angelo Que (Phi) and Danny Chia (Mas) 68; Vinod Kumar, Yasin Ali (Eng), Zhang Lian-Wei (Chn), Beg Leong (Mas), Mark Brown (Nzl), Wang Ter-Chang (Tpe), Kim Young Jin (Kor), Ali Sher, Harinder Gupta, Bae Sang Moon and Gaurav Pratap Singh 69; Neven Basic (Aus), Lloyd Saltman (Sco), Richard Gallichan (Aus), Gaganjeet Bhullar, Ashok Kumar, Raj Randhawa, Karanjit Singh, Taichiro Kiyota (Jpn), David Brandsdon (Aus), Kane Webber (Aus) Kodai Ichihara (Jpn) and Rhys Davies (Wal) 70.