Indian Open: Siddikur,Rahil lead

November 7, 2013. Familiarity with the sub-continent’s golfing conditions seems to be working well for Bangladesh’s Siddikur, who fired a flawless six-under-par 66 to tie for the early first round lead at the Hero Indian Open on Thursday after adopting a new attacking style of play.

At the end of first round, Siddikur shared the clubhouse lead with India’s Rahil Gangjee of India and Mardan Mamat of Singapore. Rahil carded bogey-free after saving par on the last hole at the venerable Delhi Golf Club. While, Mamat finished his round with seven birdies but one bogey with six-under-66.

Shankar Das is  jointly tied fourth after a 67 with Pariya J of Thailand and Carlos Pigem of Spain at the US$1.25 million Hero Indian Open event which is celebrating its Golden Anniversary.

[highlight] I kept it going, I didn’t stop making birdies. I lost track of my score which is a good thing! Sometimes when you go low then it happens [/highlight]

Asian Tour winner Gangjee, who started from the 10th tee, stayed out of trouble for most of the round but needed to make an important 12-feet par putt on the last after an erratic tee shot.

“I kept it going, I didn’t stop making birdies. I lost track of my score which is a good thing! Sometimes when you go low then it happens. I was aware of what I was doing but I just lost track of my score.

“I had a good feeling at making par on the last hole (9th hole). I’ve done it so many times here after getting in trouble. I had good confidence in that putt. I hit my tee shot a little to the right and it was in the rough,” said Gangjee.

Siddikur on the other hand, adopted a more aggressive approach, some thing he learnt after playing with Major champions Keegan Bradley and Bubba Watson at the CIMB Classic in Malaysia a fortnight ago.

“They played very aggressively. Most players can hit the ball but not all of them can play like them. Since then, I’ve been trying to play more aggressively and the results seem to be showing,” said Siddikur.

He hopes to sweeten his impressive track record at the Delhi Golf Club with a long-awaited second Asian Tour victory. Since 2011, Siddikur has notched six top-10 results including two runner-up finishes at the challenging course.

“I have good memories on this golf course. This is one of my favourite golf courses and I always love playing here. I like golf courses where you need to place your ball and I always do well here. I hope to keep it up,” he said.