Ghei overcomes morning blues

By the afternoon, though, there was nothing but the broadest of smiles on the 39-year-old’s face. Ghei shot a six-under 66 opening round to end up in the pack of six sharing the lead on Day One.

The six-some include the 24-year-old Gurbaaz Mann, Thai Chapchai Nirat, South Korean rookie Hur In-hoi, Australia’s David Gleeson and Malaysian comeback kid Danny Chia.

The early risers, hoping to catch a glimpse of Jeev Milkha Singh’s top game, were in for a letdown, as he made a hash of putting and managed only a level-par round. He’s tied 52nd.

Defending champion Jyoti Randhawa had a rather sedate start — three birdies and one bogey in the two-under round giving him a share of the 22nd place.

Ghei has been uncomfortably perched since the last week of September when he tweaked it at the typhoon-hit Mercuries Taiwan Masters. “I’m just so happy to be here and playing. I had a terrible last week when I didn’t hold a golf club for five days. It is only after the ice and heat treatment with the physios that I could get on the course,” he said.

Starting from the 10th in the morning, Ghei, wrapped in a sweater, was off with impressive putting early on. Sinking a 30-footer on the 11th and then a 20-footer two holes later, the start was nothing short of sparkling.

Missing an easy birdie putt on the 18th, it was a fuming Ghei who stormed to the par-5 first and let it off with a searing tee shot. It must’ve been home luck, but that left him a 12-foot putt that he polished off for an eagle. He finished with two more birdies on the eighth and ninth in the bogey-free round. A delighted Mann had seven birdies and a bogey, and credited the round to new-found confidence.

Jeev seemed edgy from the start, dropping a shot on his very first hole. Three birdies on the 13th, 14th and the 18th put him back on track, but putting woes kept haunting him throughout. But it was the par-three seventh that ended messing up the day.

A spectator who couldn’t stay still just as Jeev was chipping to the green, seemed to have ruined the concentration. Dropping a shot there, Jeev then missed a four-foot birdie putt on the very next, and then wrapped up with another disappointment, dropped another shot on the ninth for a three birdie-three bogey round.

Leaderboard

1 Danny Chia MAS, David Gleeson AUS Chapchai Nirat THA, Hur In-hoi KOR, Gurbaaz Mann IND, Gaurav Ghei IND; 7 Martin Rominger SUI, Chang Tse-peng TPE Ashok Kumar IND, SSP Chowrasia IND, Lu Wen-teh TPE, Jasjeet Singh [A] IND, Shamim Khan IND

Other Indians: 14 Chiragh Kumar, Rahul Ganapathy, Mohd Islam -3 (69); 22 Jyoti Randhawa -2 (70); 35 Simarjeet Singh [A] -1 (71); 52 Jeev Milkha Singh, Vijay Kumar E (72); 67 Mukesh Kumar +1 (73)