India B lead on Day One

[1]

Hemendra Choudhary

India B, represented by veteran Gagan Verma and young Udayan Mane head the leaderboard in the international team event of the 112th Tata Steel Amateur Golf Championship of India that got under way at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club in Kolkata on Tuesday.

With a combined score of 151, they were five shots ahead of India C comprising of Samarth Dwivedi and Syed Saquib Ahmed. Simarjeet Singh and Karan Taunk of India A were third on 161.
The Sri Lankan pair of Vijitha Bandara and Sisira Kumar were fourth at 166 while the team from Bhutan comprising of Tshendra Dorji and Dechen Ugyen were fifth at 167. Bangladesh were last with the Malaysian team being disqualified for submitting a wrong score.
Meanwhile unheralded players outshone the favourites in the individual category on a day the course played tough.
Hemendra Choudhary grabbed a four shot lead with a 1-under par 71, the lone sub-par score of the day.
Amit Kumar, Abel Tam (Malaysia), Arjun Singh, Udayan Mane, Ankur Chadha, Jasjeet Singh and Shubhankar Sharma shared second place on 75. Gagan Verma, Trishul Chinnappa and Shakti Singh were tied for ninth place on 76.
“The course was playing tough but I was determined to keep the ball in play,” said little known Jaipur golfer Hemendra after the round.
“The greens were pretty fast and I was lucky to drown a couple of long putts,” added the leader.