Kolkata, Nov 25 (Golf news) Five golfers, including multiple PGTI winners Harendra Gupta and Angad Cheema, shot matching scores of four-under 68 to enjoy the first round lead at the Rs. 40 lakh ICC RCGC Open Golf Championship here on Thursday.

Bengaluru's Mari Muthu R, Gurugram's Ankur Chadha and Vikrant Chopra of Noida are the other three golfers at the top.

On a packed leaderboard, the leading quintet was one shot ahead of six players bunched in tied sixth at three-under 69 which included Akram Ali Mollah of Kolkata, Tapy Ghai, Sri Lankan Anura Rohana, last week’s winner Yuvraj Singh Sandhu, Kshitij Naveed Kaul and Kurush Heerjee.

It was a high scoring day that witnessed sub-par rounds by only 31 players in a field of 126.

Mari and Harendra, both room-mates this week, found themselves at the top of the pack with the former firing an eagle, four birdies and two bogeys and the latter returning a bogey-free round with four birdies to his credit.

Harendra, multiple winner on the PGTI, has had a promising run since the resumption of the tour in September having posted two top-10s and two other top-20s. He is currently 22nd on the Order of Merit.

Angad, currently 23rd on the PGTI Order of Merit, came up with five birdies and a bogey on Thursday.

Angad, a winner on the PGTI, was five-under through 17 holes when he was looking good for the sole lead. However, he bogeyed the closing ninth, missing a five-footer, for his only blemish of the day that saw him drop down into the joint lead at four-under.

Ankur got off to a whirlwind start on the back-nine with four birdies on his first five holes before dropping bogeys on the 15th and 18th. He made a recovery, picking up two birdies on the front-nine.

After being even-par on the back-nine, Vikrant too made his way up the leaderboard by firing four birdies on the front-nine.

Defending champion Mithun Perera of Sri Lanka carded a one-over 73 to be tied 42nd.

Also Read : Vani lands 5 birdies on back nine to take 3-shot lead in 13th Leg of WPGT

News Source : PTI