Diamond Cup: Poor start for Indian golfers; Rashid Khan stays even

September 24, 2015: The large contingent of Indian golfers was made to eat humble pie at the Otone Country Club, with the par 70 course proving to be a bigger hurdle than most imagined. The best performance came from Rashid Khan, who survived the day with an even score to his name. Rahil Gangjee and Gaganjeet Bhullar shot 72 while Digvijay Singh signed on a 74. Arjun Atwal carded 75 to slip outside the first hundred men on the leaderboard. SSP Chawrasia and Jyoti Randhawa made 77 each, one shot better than Viraj Madappa who made 78. Friday will prove to be an ugly battle for survival, with the lead at 64 in the hands of Scott Strange.

Khan made four birdies during his round, but three bogeys on the front nine and another at the 15th saw him settle for a 70. Bhullar made five bogeys and three birdies; Gangjee dealt in even numbers – making four birdies and two bogeys in his opening round.

Scott Strange of Australia continued his career renaissance when he fired a six-under-par 64 to lead in the opening round of the Asia-Pacific Open Mitsubishi Diamond Cup on Thursday.

The 38-year-old struggled in his career when he lost his sister and mother to cancer in 2008 and 2009 respectively but he is slowly returning to his best form as he showed at the challenging Otone Country Club, West Course where he leads by two shots.

Richard T. Lee of Canada, ranked sixth on the Asian Tour Order of Merit, Wonjoon Lee of Australia and Akio Sadakata of Japan trail in second place after shooting matching 66s at the Y150 million (approximately US$1.2 million) event sanctioned by the Asian Tour and Japan Golf Tour.

Thailand’s Panuphol Pittarat and Prayad Marksaeng, who is a nine-time Asian Tour winner, Kyungtae Kim of Korea and last year’s runner-up Jason Knutzon of the United States were a further shot back in tied fifth place.

“I lost my way until 2013 because my mother (Sylvia) and sister (Natalie) died of cancer and my good friend past away. After that, I started thinking there is more to life than golf. Now I’m starting to piece things together by being a father and playing golf. In some ways, I feel that I’ve matured at the age of 38!” said Strange.

Strange, a two-time Asian Tour winner, started strongly when he birdied three in his opening four holes and chipped in for eagle on the fourth hole from 83 yards. He is enjoying a rich vein of form in Japan where he has two runner-up results and one tied fourth finish.

“It just a combination of some things coming together. I had a rough time in the last couple of years but I’m coming back to where I was again five or six years ago. You need some good results to get the confidence going again,” said the Australian, who has also won twice in Europe.

Lee, who won his first Asian Tour title in the Philippines in 2014, played conservatively from the tees after learning from his miss cut experience in last year’s event.

“My tee shots were absolutely great. I learnt from last year where I was hitting the ball too hard. I toned it down by 70% on the tee shots to find more fairways. It makes it easier on your second shot when you are on the fairway because the rough is up.

“I made a lot of putts and had six birdies which is outstanding on this golf course. I’m usually an aggressive player. Sometimes I spray my tee shots but this is a course where you can’t do that. You have to make sure that you find the fairway,” said Lee.

Scores after round 1 of the Asia Pacific Open Mitsubishi Diamond Cup being played at the par 70, 7101 Yards Otone CC course (am – denotes amateur):
64 – Scott STRANGE (AUS).
66 – Richard T. LEE (CAN), Wonjoon LEE (AUS), Akio SADAKATA (JPN).
67 – Panuphol PITTAYARAT (THA), K.T. KIM (KOR), Jason KNUTZON (USA), Prayad MARKSAENG (THA).
68 – Tatsuhiko TAKAHASHI (JPN), Yuta IKEDA (JPN), Keiichiro FUKABORI (JPN), Hyungsung KIM (KOR), Tomohiro KONDO (JPN), Kiyoshi MUROTA (JPN).
69 – Ryutaro NAGANO (JPN), Ryo ISHIKAWA (JPN), Lionel WEBER (FRA), Daisuke KATAOKA (JPN), Sam BRAZEL (AUS), Toru TANIGUCHI (JPN), Wen-chong LIANG (CHN), Hideto TANIHARA (JPN), Kazuki HIGA (am, JPN), Toshinori MUTO (JPN), Kurt BARNES (AUS).
70 – Shinji TOMIMURA (JPN), S.K. HO (KOR), Adam BLAND (AUS), Shohei HASEGAWA (am, JPN), Rashid KHAN (IND), Atomu SHIGENAGA (JPN), Mithun PERERA (SRI), Shugo IMAHIRA (JPN), Shunsuke SONODA (JPN), Yusaku MIYAZATO (JPN), Achi SATO (JPN), Paul PETERSON (USA), Scott BARR (AUS), Minkyu KIM (am, KOR), Chinnarat PHADUNGSIL (THA), Brad KENNEDY (AUS), Michio MATSUMURA (JPN), Taihei SATO (am, JPN), Kyounghoon LEE (KOR).