Gunvir Rana leads Delhi NCR Cup

Edited by Anand Datla

March 11, 2015: Local lad Gunvir Rana took great advantage of home conditions to register the low round of the day by carding a three-under par 69 and grab a one-stroke lead at the end of the first round of The Delhi NCR Cup 2015 here at the Par-72 Delhi Golf Club.

Mysore’s Aalaap I. L. and Samarth Dwivedi of Noida brought in the only other under par rounds of two-under par 70. Another local lad Yash Jindal carded an even-par 72 followed by the duo of Simarjeet Singh and Ankur Chadha at one-over par 73.

Gunvir began the 10th edition of Delhi NCR Cup with a birdie on the first and followed it up with two more on the fifth and the sixth holes. He went on to two drop two strokes on the seventh and ninth holes before he took the turn at one-under. He played steadily on the back nine with eight pars and an eagle on the Par 5 14th hole.

“I was hitting it very well today and it feels great to be up there overnight.” Said the leader. The youngster added, “I don’t want to look ahead too far but I hope to be still up there by the end of tomorrow.”

Aalaap and Samarth had contrasting nines with the southerner playing an even par front nine and shooting a two-under 34 on the back while the Order Of Merit leader had it reverse.

Defending champion Aman Raj carded a disappointing three-over par thanks to a double bogey 7 on the 18th hole and was matched by India’s top junior Viraj Madappa at 75.

Top Scores (after 18 holes):

69 Gunvir Rana; 70 Aalaap I.L., Samarth Dwivedi; 72 Yash Jindal; 73 Simarjeet Singh, Ankur Chadha; 74 Vinay Kumar Yadav, Tapendra Ghai, Gagan Verma, Rahul Ravi; 75 Viraj Madappa, H. S. Kang, Anshul Patel, Aman Raj