Sandhu best Indian at T-4

Gurugram, Mar 27 (PTI) Ajeetesh Sandhu emerged as the best Indian at T-4 fourth with seven golfers from the country making it to the top 30 after the opening day of the Hero Indian Open here on Thursday.

Sandhu (69), and Veer Ahlawat (70), who finished tied second last year, were T-4 and T-10 respectively.

Two-time winner SSP Chawrasia, a tournament invitee, Gaganjeet Bhullar, Shiv Kapur, Om Prakash Chouhan, and Rayhan Thomas shot 72 each on a day when even par was considered a good score to be T-30.

At the top, England’s Marcus Armitage, seeking to end a four-year title drought, led by one heading into the final hole but squandered the opportunity to fall into a three-way tie with Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts and Sweden’s Marcus Kinhult.

Kinhult held a share of the lead for most of the day.

Armitage, the 37-year-old Yorkshireman, found trouble off the 18th tee, going into the left rough and dropping a shot.

Interestingly, none of the three co-leaders have won on the DP World Tour in the last four years.

Colsaerts and Armitage picked up four birdies each on the front nine but overall had seven birdies against three bogeys each. Kinhult had five birdies and one bogey.

The DLF Golf and Country course, regarded as one of the toughest in India, lived up to its reputation, yielding only 30 under-par scores.

As Armitage slipped, Chawrasia shone through in the fading light.

Chawrasia, the last Indian to win the Indian Open back in 2017, was 3-over after the first eight holes but fought back strongly on the tougher back nine.

After bogeys on the first, fourth, and eighth, he was 3-over before a birdie on the ninth provided some consolation.

A drop shot on the 10th took him back to 3-over again, but he managed a fightback with two sets of back-to-back birdies – first on the 12th and 13th, and then on the 17th and 18th – with a bogey in between, finishing with an even-par 72.

Sandhu, who made six birdies and three bogeys, was content with his round.

“I wouldn’t say anything was great today but I think everything was above average. I hit a lot of fairways and greens and putted well. Just kept my head on my shoulders through the day and just kept plugging along.”

On his bogey on 17th, he added, “Yeah, 17 is just a tricky hole. I hit the fairway, I had 7 iron in, I had a good shot, it just went over the green. It’s a really tough chip from there. I hit it to five feet and missed the putt. It hurts a little bit.”