Pahalgam, July 2, 2014: Pawan Verma of Delhi emerged as the clubhouse leader on the rain-marred opening day of the J&K Bank PGTI Pahalgam Masters presented by KEO. Verma shot a phenomenal bogey-free eight-under-62 to take the clubhouse lead at the Lidder Valley Golf Course. Chandigarh’s Harendra Gupta and Sri Lankan K Prabagaran were in joint second with scores of six-under-64.
Play was suspended at 3:40 pm local time due to heavy rain. Sixty-five players out of a total of 125 had completed their rounds when play was suspended. The 60 players yet to complete round one, will resume play at 8 am on Thursday.
Pawan Verma enjoyed a terrific start to the tournament as he made four birdies on the front-nine, including three on the trot from the fifth to the seventh. The 22-year-old added four more on the back-nine. Pawan, a former winner on the PGTI Feeder Tour, attributed his excellent start to some accurate hitting and consistent putting.
Verma said, “This is my personal best for a single round. I took all my chances today after hitting it close on quite a few occasions. I also made some long putts. The course is playing really well and the conditions are perfect. The wind wasn’t up today so that contributed to the low scores. The pine trees on either side make the fairways narrow on certain holes and one needs to be accurate off the tee on those stretches.
“I’ve not had a good year so far and this round has come just at the right time for me. I’d like to capitalize on this start,” added Pawan.
K Prabagaran made an eagle, five birdies and a bogey in his opening round to be joint second with Harendra Gupta who produced seven birdies and a bogey in round one.
Indian star Jyoti Randhawa shot a score of five-under-65 to be tied fourth along with another seasoned professional Mukesh Kumar of Mhow. Gurgaon-based Arshdeep Tiwana, Bangalore’s Khalin Joshi and Om Prakash Chouhan of Mhow joined Randhawa and Mukesh in joint fourth place.
Raghav Wahi of Jammu fired a one-under-69 to be placed tied 20th. He is currently the host state’s highest placed golfer in the field.
Randhawa makes solid start in familiar territory
Jyoti Randhawa, playing his first event of the 2014 PGTI season, got off to a rousing start in Pahalgam with a bogey-free five-under-65. Jyoti said, “I’m feeling good about my start today, however, it could’ve been better had I converted a few short putts. I played well from tee to green and kept out the errors. It’s an unbelievably beautiful golf course. The hills surrounding the course lend it a distinct character. The holes are shaped really well.”
Randhawa, who arrived in the Kashmir valley a week prior to the Pahalgam event and went to Gulmarg for trout fishing, added, “It’s great to be back in Kashmir for a tournament. I have great memories of playing golf in the state. I won the last professional tournament held in Jammu & Kashmir 10 years back. I also took to the sport in this state, having played golf at places like Jammu, Gulmarg and Nagrota before turning professional.”
Leading Scores on day 1:
62: Pawan Verma
64: Harendra Gupta, K Prabagaran
65: Mukesh Kumar, Jyoti Randhawa, Om Prakash Chouhan, Khalin Joshi, Arshdeep Tiwana
