Australians Kieran Pratt and Wade Ormsby emerged joint leaders with Singapore’s Lam Chih Bing in the $300,000 Panasonic Open golf championship here on Thursday. The trio turned in first-round cards of at five-under 67. S.S.P. Chowrasia was the best Indian taking fourth place on the leader-board with a two-under.
Contrary to the predictions of low scores this week from Jeev Milkha Singh and defending champion Digvijay Singh, the Delhi Golf Club course proved to be unforgiving. Only 28 out of 156 golfers managed to break par.
Chowrasia birdied from 10 feet on the first hole and moved to three-under after six holes. But thereafter, he bogeyed and birdied alternatively, three times to end the round on 69.
The scores:67: Kieran Pratt (Aus), Wade Ormsby (Aus), Lam Chih Bing (Sin); 69: S.S.P. Chowrasia; 70: Lioner Weber (Fra), Chiragh Kumar, Angad Chima, Jay Bayron (Phi), Adam Groom (Aus), Boonchu Ruangkit (Tha), Sanjay Kumar. Other Indians (with sub-par scores): Ajeetesh Sandhu, Amardip Malik, Shiv Kapur, Digvijay Singh, Vinod Kumar and Anirban Lahiri 71 each.
