Randhawa soars to Indian Masters lead at happy hunting ground
A venue where he has won almost everything and anything, the par-72 Delhi Golf Club once again turned out to be Randhawa's happy hunting ground and country's top-ranked golfer sizzled on a spectacular back nine that included two eagles, apart from a birdie, and fetched him a two-shot lead over second placed Damien McGrane of Ireland and Richard Finch of England. On 14th, he fired an eagle and then went on to sign off in style, with yet another eagle amid loud cheers. And it came from a man who was not completely happy with some of the recent changes in the course. "Well, I could not have asked for a better start and I don't know what to say about the course," Randhawa said. "This being an European Tour, I knew I have to go for the birdies and take some risk for that. Fortunately, it paid off," he said. Though most believe he did not put a foot wrong on Thursday, Randhawa felt he missed out on a few more birdies. "I missed eight-foot putts on the first, ninth, 15th, 16th and 17th holes and it could have been even better." Meanwhile, having played the last two rounds of the Dubai Desert Classic with Tiger Woods seemed to have done a world of good for McGrane and the stocky Irish player unleashed seven birdies, as against two bogeys, to share the second spot with Finch who mixed five birdies, an eagle and two bogeys in his round. Local lad Shiv Kapur reeled off seven birdies, against three bogeys, in a see-saw round of 68 to be tied fourth and was still sulking not to have done better. "I think 68 is par for the course. We golfers are quite greedy you know, we always want more," said the youngster. Not really ecstatic even after the impressive outing, Shiv felt he blossomed late on Thursday. "Initially, I was scratching around and was even over-par at a stage. My swing was not great and I started with a few errant shots. But the rhythm was back and I felt on song over the final 8-9 holes. I'm happy that I just hanged around," said the European Tour regular.
After an impeccable front nine, where he picked up a shot each on the third and sixth holes, Randhawa birdied the 12th and parred the next.
Thomas Bjorn shunned extravaganza and stuck to a conservative gameplan to return an identical card.
Playing his back nine first, the Ryder Cup star fired three birdies on his front nine and picked up two more shots on his way back before came the lone blot in an otherwise perfect card via a final hole bogey.
The final hole blip notwithstanding, the Dane said he was happy that his strategy worked.
"The par-five holes are inviting but there is nowhere to hit the driver. You have to hit spectacular shot, else you would be inviting trouble. So I guess you've to play conservative golf. It was a good start and we'll work from here," he said.
Currently have 0 comments: