January 16, 2014: For some one like Prom Meesawat, home turf experience finally worked to his advantage as he struck seven-under 65 to share lead with Sweden’s Rikard Karlberg on the opening day of the King’s Cup .
India’s Anirban Lahiri made a comfortable start just to get stalled by double-bogey on the seventh hole to slip four shots back of Prom and Karlberg to stay tied 8thalong with eight others at the Black Mountain Golf Club.
“I’m obviously disappointed to finish the way I did but I think I played really well. I probably only missed two shots all day, on number seven where I hit the ball in the wrong spot, otherwise it would have been a flawless round,” said Lahiri.
Hua hin nativeProm made determined effort to end his eight-year winless drought on the Asian Tour on Thursday. After coming narrowly close to winning his second Asian Tour title with two play-off defeats in the Philippines and Hong Kong late last year, Prom is upbeat about returning to the winner’s circle for the first time since 2006.
“I’ve already got those two play-off defeats out of my mind and I’ve been telling myself to concentrate on this week and the new season so that I can get my second win,” said Prom.
The 29-year-old, Karlberg put his playing experience in Europe to good effect as he marked his card with two eagles, five birdies and two bogeys.
“Actually such conditions are not really new to me as I’ve played in similar conditions before. I had a good experience playing in Europe with the strong winds. They really helped me with my club selection and it has definitely helped me a lot,” said Prom.
“Those two eagles really helped me get a low score but there are still three more days to go,” added Prom.
Starting on the back-nine 10th, Lahiri was cruising towards another promising start with five birdies on holes 16, 17, 18, three and five.However, a miscalculated shot on the seventh ruined an otherwise perfect day for Lahiri.
“I was in the fairway trap and kind of over calculated the wind and hit it over the back and got my ball plugged in the downslope of the greenside bunker. It was impossible to hit a clean shot from there and hit my next shot into the other greenside bunker!” said Lahiri.
Nine Indians are playing in Huahin. Jyoti Randhawa and SSP Chowrasi are tied 14th after finishing the first round with two-under 70. Rahil Gangjee is tied 29th.
