PGTI Players Championship 2022: Chandigarh Golfer Chadha grabs opening-day lead

Chadha, who also shot a hole-in-one on the 14th hole, made a solid start in the first round and sank birdies on the second and fifth hole respectively. He then carded a birdie on the 13th hole before the hole-in-one on the 14th hole.

Chandigarh golfer Abhijit Singh Chadha (File)

Chandigarh golfer Abhijit Singh Chadha took advantage of home conditions and grabbed the opening day lead with a first round score of six-under-66 in the PGTI Players Championship 2022 being organised by Chandigarh Golf Club. Chadha, who also shot a hole-in-one on the 14th hole, made a solid start in the first round and sank birdies on the second and fifth hole respectively. He then carded a birdie on the 13th hole before the hole-in-one on the 14th hole. He then dropped a bogey on the 15th hole before sinking birdies on the 16th and 17th hole respectively.

“The wind didn’t affect me much as I play here day in, day out and know my way around the course. However, I feel the heat will be the bigger challenge this week. In that sense, we got lucky today with the weather as it wasn’t that hot. The form has been good but I feel that I haven’t peaked yet. I’m just beginning to play well. I’m confident of playing well this week as I know the conditions well here. The hole-in-one was special as it turned out to be a perfect 7-iron shot,” said Chadha after the first round.

Gurgaon golfer Kartik Sharma produced the day’s only bogey-free round to be placed tied-second at five-under-67. Bangladesh golfer Md Zamal Hossain Mollah and Chandimandir golfer Ravi Kumar also carded rounds of five-under-67 each to join southpaw Kartik in tied-second position.

Kartik Sharma got going early with three birdies on the first six holes. Kartik, who is playing his second season on the PGTI, then had a quiet stretch till the 16th hole before closing in style with birdies on the last two holes which included a fine chip-putt on the 17th hole. “It’s quite satisfying to go error-free in tough conditions like we had today. My putting form has been off and on so I just focused on that aspect in the practice round on Monday. I told myself to keep trusting my putting. This is one of those courses which doesn’t suit my eye but every time I play here I learn something new about this course that helps me perform better,” said Sharma.

Sri Lanka golfer N Thangaraja and Kshitij Naveed Kaul and Shivendra Singh Sisodia shared the fifth spot having fired rounds of four-under-68.

There were seven golfers bunched in tied-eighth at three-under 69, including Indian golfing great Gaurav Ghei as well as Chandigarh golfer Ranjit Singh and Panchkula golfer Angad Cheema.

Among the other prominent names, Olympian Udayan Mane and Chandigarh golfer Yuvraj Singh Sandhu were tied 15th with scores of two-under-70 each. Defending champion Karandeep Kochhar of Chandigarh carded a score of one-under-71 to be placed tied-24th.

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