Feroz Ali fires five-under-par-67

Local golfer Akbar Ali, Basad Ali’s brother had a mixed round. He made his first birdie on the fourth following it up with an eagle on the par four fifth to go three under but then went on to drop shots on the next two holes as well as the long 10th. Stabilising his game, he then made birdies on the 12th and 14th but dropped another shot on the 15th to finish 71.

The only other golfer to card an under par round, Khokhan had three birdies, on the fourth, eighth and 15th but dropped shots on the sixth and 10th.

Feroz teed off from the tenth and carded a four under 32 on the back nine with birdies on the par four 12th, 14th and 17th and the par five 15th. He then made birdies on the first followed by another on the par five fourth hole making his sole bogey of the day on the seventh, a difficult par four that was also bogeyed by Vijay yesterday on his way to a 65.

Amritinder Singh had a `dream start’ with birdies on the first, third and fourth holes to go three under. However, a double bogey on the next hole, the par-four fifth, and the seventh followed by a bogey on the ninth took him to two over par at the turn.

With two birdies on the 12th and 15th, he made up the two dropped shots and held on with par’s on the last two holes coming in. He feels that reason for such high scores could be the high rough around the greens.

Tuesday’s hero Vijay Kumar peaked a day too soon and must have wished for Tuesday’s round as he played one over par with successive bogeys on the third, fourth and fifth holes.

Gaurav Ghei too had to be content with an over par score, 74 for the day. The new greens have these golfers under their spell, as Gaurav went on to explain, “They are quite firm which makes them tricky to negotiate.”

Among the rookies Amit Dube had the best round with a one over par 73. Digvijay Singh and Harmeet Kahlon were not too happy with their scores of 75 and 76 respectively.

Gursimran Sethi was one under after nine but dropped shots on the way in, to finish at 75. However, 76 seemed to be the score of the day as Uttam Singh Mundy, Dinesh Kumar, M Islam, Rup Singh, Sanjay Kumar and Harmeet Kahlon are among the thirteen players tied at four-over par for the day.

Playing on his home course, SSP Chowrasia, who received accolades for his performance here last year had a mediocre five over par.

Leading scores: 67: Feroz Ali; 71: Diensh Raghuvanshi, Akbar Ali; 72: Ajay Gupta, Mohammed Khokhan, Amritinder Singh, Ali Sher; 73: Rafiq Ali, Amit Dube, Vijay Kumar, Rezwan Ali.

Amateurs: 72: Sanjeev Mehra; 74: Pritam Saikia; 78: Atul Almal, Anshuman Fogla.