Shubhankar leads in title defense

Report by Anand Datla

March 04, 2015: Last week at the Golconda Masters, just after finishing outside the top 30, Shubhankar Sharma asserted that he was playing well. Vain as he may have felt in doing so, Sharma proved true to his word, starting his title defense at the Cochin Masters in style with a 69. Sharing the lead with Shubhankar was Gaganjeet Bhullar, who started on the stroke of noon. Only a handful of golfers, eleven to be precise, managed to break par on a difficult day for scoring.

Last week’s playoff warriors, Harendra Gupta and Shamim Khan were locked at T5 after scoring 71. The two were in a group of seven that finished the first day at one under par.

Shubhankar made a birdie at the second, but gave the shot back immediately with a bogey on the next hole. But there were to be no further dents as he made birdies at 9, 13 and 16 to coast home at three under par for the day.

Shubhankar said, “I’m delighted to be back at the CIAL Golf & Country Club where I won my first event. I’ve had a good start to the week. One needs to be straight off the tee at this course and half the work is done. I’ve been playing well over the last one month. The top-20 finish at the Indian Open gave me a lot of satisfaction. I now just need to put together four good rounds.”

Bhullar was a trifle unsteady on the front nine, conceding two bogeys in an even 36. But three birdies – 12th, 14th and 16th gave him the cushion needed to sign off the first round in a share of the lead.

Bhullar said, “I enjoyed my first competitive round at the CIAL Golf & Country Club. The layout reminded me of some of the courses in Europe. The course makes you think and take some tough decisions. The conditions were tough today as it was windy and therefore one didn’t see too many low scores. I putted well today and importantly closed the round well with a long birdie conversion on the ninth. It’s a good start to the week.”

Udayan Mane was T3 with N Thangaraja after both the men posted 70. Mane had a colourful march through the first nine holes, making three birdies and an even number of bogeys. Despite a late bogey, one on the 17th, he managed to finished at 2-under for the round.

Thangaraja suffered a double bogey at the par-4 fourth hole and two other bogeys. But he also made birdies at the 11th, 13th and 14th holes to sign on a 70 and remain within an arm of the leaders.

Chikkarangappa just could not get it going in Cochin. he suffered consecutive bogeys at the third and fourth holes before making ten straight pars. Eventually though he erased the deficit by making birdies at 15 and 16 to get even with the course.