Kuala Lumpur, Feb 15 (PTI) Indian golfer Veer Ahlawat, looking for his maiden win, shot 9-under 62 and shared the lead with Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond after the first-round of the USD 1 million IRS Prima Malaysian Open here on Thursday.

Canadian Richard T Lee fired 63, while Malaysians Gavin Green and Khavish Varadan shot 64 each at The Mines Resort and Golf Club in the Asian Tour’s first event of the year.

Other Indian players had mixed luck.

Karandeep Kochhar and Ajeetesh Sandhu shot 3-under 68 each and were T-37, while SSP Chawrasia and S Chikkarangappa carded 2-under 69 to be T-58 and Yuvraj Sandhu and Honey Baisoya, with 1-under 70 each, were T-80.

Rashid Khan (71) was T-99 and Jeev Milkha Singh (72) was T-112.

India’s leading title winner on Asia Tour, Gaganjeet Bhullar (74) faced the danger of missing the cut at T-134.

Ahlawat had 10 birdies and dropped his only shot of the day on 18.

“Really solid round, I drove the ball well and hit some really good second shots. Hitting them to seven, eight feet and holing them. Just dropped that shot on 18, where I got the wind direction wrong,” Ahlawat said.

He played his first full season on the Asian Tour in 2022, when he finished equal fifth in the Singapore Open, which remains his best result till date.

“My game has been feeling very good, just like my putting has been very good,” he said.

“I really worked on my body during the break. I tried to gain some yardage and I think I did gain a little bit but not much to be honest. My goal is to finally get a win this year and then have a lot of top 10s.”

Source: PTI News