Rohtas Singh meets his match in Monish Bindra

“I just followed my gameplan which was to play against the course and not Rohtas,” said the 26-year-old Bindra who turned pro just two years ago.Bindra made a good start winning the second, fifth, seventh and eighth holes. On the ninth, however, he dropped a shot, his first of the day, to finish the front nine three-up.

On the back nine, Rohtas came back strongly to win the 11th and 12th holes after they had halved (both completed the hole in equal strokes) the 10th. Rohtas trailed the Delhi youngster, ranked 53, by one-stroke after 12 holes.

“Winning the 13th hole did a world of good for me,” said Bindra. “I knew Rohtas had to do something exceptional to overtake me while I had to just keep my lead and do nothing foolish,” he said.

To add to his woes, Rohtas double bogied on the 14th when Bindra went one over. Rohtas dropped another shot on the 15th (Bindra parred). While Rohtas managed to par the 481-yard 16th, Bindra ended the contest with a fine 10-feet putt for a birdie. Bindra meets his coach and mentor Ajay Gupta who beat Shamim Gupta.

Among the casualties was Delhi’s Jyoti Randhawa. Manohar Dighe (Mumbai) was the giant killer, edging past him on the final hole. The 15-feet putt for birdie by Dighe saw Randhawa concede with the Delhite needing an eagle.Randhawa had already used up three strokes on the par-5 18th hole.

It was a fine comeback by the 30-year-old localite after trailing by two-down after the front nine. Dighe took the 10th but Randhawa neutralised it by firing a birdie on the 11th. They parred the 12th before Dighe took the 13th with a par which Randhawa missed a chip and putt. Dighe parred the 14th and 15th to go one-up while Randhawa bogeyed on both holes. The next two holes were halved. On the 18th, Randhawa was in a better position after hitting the second on the greens while Dighe found the bunker. Randhawa took two putts to birdie it. But to his dismay Dighe too birdied with the fourth stroke, a brilliant 20-feet putt.

Top-seed and defending champion Gaurav Ghei was stretched to the 16th hole by Hem Chand before winning. Ghei, who is undergoing treatment for a suspected viral infection, seemed happy with his performance. “I was not playing anything exceptional but I am satisfied,” he said.

Ghei meets Kanpur’s Ajay Kumar Yadav, who pipped Calcutta’s SSP Chaowrasia one-up.

Seventh seed Arjun Singh (Del) had the best time today. He outclassed Mahendra Bamne of Mumbai going seven-up by the 12th hole. The other seeds to advance were Mukesh Kumar, Vivek Bhandari, Vijay Kumar, Feroz Ali Ali Sher, Shiv Prakash and Basad Ali.

RESULTS (First round)

1-Gaurav Ghei (Del) bt Hem Chand (Del) 3/2, Ajay Kumar Yadav (Kan) bt SSP Chowrasia (Cal) 1-up, Rafiq Ali (Del) bt Asgar Ali (Del) 2/1, SK Patal (Cal) bt Raj Kumar (Del) 2-up, 8-Basad Ali (Del) bt Binod Pandey (Cal) 1-up, Prem (Del) bt Jagdish Angre (Mum) 4/2, 9-Shiv Prakash Kanpur bt Dinesh Raghuvanshi (Pune) 4/3, Prakash Kubde (Mum) bt Gast Ram (Del) 3/1, 4-Ali Sher (Del) bt J Nigade (Pune) 3/2, Rajeev Mohta (Cal) bt Anil Samantha (Cal) 5/4, Amit Chopra (Del) bt Mohd Islam (Patna) 3/1, Indrajit Bhalotia (Cal) bt Raju Ali (Del) 1-up, 5-Feroz Ali bt Rakesh Kumar (Mum) 6-4, Jumman (Del) bt Rajesh Chowdhary (Mhow) 4/3, Monish Bindra (Del) bt Rohtas Singh (Del) 3/2, Ajay Gupta (Del) bt Shamim Khan (Del) 5/4, Vijay Kumar (Luc) bt Mohd Salim (Cal) 3/2, Sanjay Kumar (Cal) bt Pappan (Del) 4/3, US Mundy (Cal) bt Anand Kumar (Del) 6/5, Ganesh Madchal (Mum) bt Bhoop Singh (Luc) on the 19th, Arjun Singh (Del) bt Mahendra Bamne (Mum) 8/7, AmandeepJohl (Chd) bt Mohd Yamin (Aravali) 6/4, Akbar Ali (Del) bt Yusuf Ali (Del) 1-up, Devendra Patel (Mhow) bt Magan Subbarao (Mum) 8/6, Vivek Bhandari (Del) bt Hari Ram (Luc) 6/5, Vishal Singh (Jai) bt Ranjit Singh (Chd) 2/1, Mohd Maqbool (Del) bt KP Sekhon (Chd) 4/2, Chini Ali (Del) bt DK Verma (Kan) 4/3, Mukesh Kumar (Mhow) bt Simran Singh (Chd) 6/4, Amritinder Singh (Chd) bt Rajesh Rawat (Luc) 4/3, Manohar Dighe (Mum) bt Jyoti Randhawa (Del) 1-up, Rejwan Ali (Cal) bt Sanjay Singh (Cal) 5/4.