December 24, 2015: There are 15 players within two shots of each other at RCGC in Kolkata as the leaderboard grew top heavy in the McLeod Russell Tour Championship. There were as many as five men sharing the lead at four under 68 – with Kunal Bhasin, N Thangaraja, Rahil Gangjee, Jyoti Randhawa and S Chikkarangappa all tied in knots at the end of the first round. Ten men shot 70 including Amardip Malik, Khalin Joshi, Shankar Das and local hero SSP Chawrasia.
Overall just 24 men managed to break par on the difficult course at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club in Tollygunge. Bhasin was even through nine holes after making two birdies and an even number of bogeys. But he caught fire on the back nine, as he produced four birdies to surge into a share of the lead.
Chikkarangappa, currently second in the Rolex Ranking, about eight and a half lakh rupees behind leader Mukesh Kumar of Mhow, began his campaign for his first Rolex Player of the Year title on a promising note with an eagle and four birdies against two bogeys.
Chikka produced a massive drive on the 15th followed by an eight feet conversion to help himself to an eagle. He also had two early birdies on 2 and 3 where he rolled in a 12-footer and a mammoth 70-footer respectively. He seemed to be heading for the sole lead with a 15-feet birdie conversion on the 16th but found the trees on the last hole to drop a shot.
“I didn’t drive that well today but was sharp with my short game as I managed to make a number of long putts. My tee shots need to improve if I have to be in contention this week. I’ve won junior and amateur events at RCGC so I quite enjoy playing here. Winning the Rolex Ranking crown is a big motivation since I’ve been finishing second in the merit list for the last two years,” said Chikka.
Rahil and Thangaraja were nearly flawless – except for bogeys at the 2nd and 9th holes respectively. Thangaraja began with a pair of birdies at the first two holes, while the highlight of Rahil’s round were a hattrick of birdies from the 13th hole.
Kolkata’s Gangjee negotiated the tough scoring conditions well with five birdies and a bogey. His round featured four birdie conversions from 10 to 15 feet and a couple of brilliant par-saves.
“The course is quite challenging this year and playing longer due to some of the tees being moved back as well as the rough and the colder weather conditions. I did really well to save par from difficult situations on the 6th and 7th, perhaps two of the toughest holes on the course,” said Gangjee.
Randhawa was even through eleven holes after scoring two birdies and bogeys till then. But he made three birdies in the next seven holes to climb up the order.
Chawrasia was three over after he made a double bogey at the par-4 sixth hole. He started his recovery with an eagle at the ninth hole, before adding three more birdies on his way to the clubhouse.
Jyoti Randhawa, one of India’s all-time greats, also ended the day on top of the pack thanks to six birdies and two bogeys. He was one-under through 11 before picking up three more shots on the last seven holes.
Randhawa said, “I hit it good today and got my timing back which was lacking for some time. I holed a lot of putts from a range of eight to 10 feet. I feel the front-nine here is tougher than the back-nine which has more potential for birdies. The greens are also not easy to read. But the golf course is in great shape.”
N Thangaraja, also a joint leader on day one, set up three tap-in birdies for himself on the front-nine courtesy some accurate iron-play. He narrowly missed a hole-in-one on the second. However, Thanga also missed half a dozen short putts that stopped him from going lower.
Kunal Bhasin made it a five-way lead at the top as he sank some long putts on the back-nine en route his 68.
The chasing pack of 10 golfers in tied sixth place at two-under-70 included former champions Shankar Das and SSP Chawrasia, both from Kolkata, Rolex Ranking leader Mukesh Kumar and Chandigarh’s Abhijit Singh Chadha, who is currently third in the Rolex Ranking.
Rookie Udayan Mane of Bengaluru, at the moment coasting towards the Emerging Player of the Year title, got off to a solid start with a one-under-71 to be tied 16th.
Three of the pre-tournament favourites Chiragh Kumar (72), Gaganjeet Bhullar (74) and Himmat Singh Rai (80) were placed tied 25th, tied 44th and 68th respectively.
