PGTI Feeder: Amardeep, Gulfam lead

Forest Hill Golf Resort, District Mohali, Punjab, September 2, 2014: Lucknow’s Amardeep Rawat and Delhi golfer Gulfam shot rounds of three-under-67 to be the joint leaders on the opening day of the PGTI Feeder Tour event being played at the Forest Hill Golf Resort in Mohali district in Punjab. Chandigarh’s K Raghav Bhandari and Manoj Kumar of Lucknow were in tied third, two shots off the lead.

Amardeep Rawat, the younger brother of the seasoned Sanjay Kumar, occupied top position on the leaderboard on Tuesday thanks to a bogey-free round. Rawat sank 12 footers for birdies on the fifth and 13th and landed it within a couple of inches of the pin for a tap-in birdie on the 14th.

The 25-year-old Rawat said, “I’ve not had a good season so far so it was important for me to start well this week. I did that with some good hitting. My putting wasn’t great but the long birdie-conversion on the fifth really lifted my game.”

The experienced Gulfam, currently fifth on the Feeder Tour Order of Merit, put together four birdies and a bogey in his round to join Amardeep in joint first. The 47-year-old began with a three-putt for bogey on the first, but came back strongly with three birdie putts from a range of 15 to 25 feet on the seventh, 11th and 13th. He closed his round with another birdie on the 18th.

Gulfam, the elder brother of the prolific Shamim Khan, said, “I hit a lot of greens today and rolled in the longer putts. Even though the short putts didn’t go in, it was a highly satisfying opening round. It sets me up for the remainder of the tournament.”

Local lad K Raghav Bhandari fired a 69 for a share of third place with Manoj Kumar.

Delhi golfers Ikramuddin Shah and Karan Vasudeva were a further shot back in tied fifth.

Chandigarh-based professionals Ranjit Singh (one-over-71) and Akshay Sharma (three-over-73) finished the day in tied seventh place and tied 13th place respectively. Harendra Gupta, another Chandigarh golfer, had a disappointing day as he shot a seven-over-77 to be placed tied 42nd.

The top-36 players (and ties) will make the cut at the end of round two on Wednesday.