Udayan Mane, who represented India at the Tokyo Olympics, fired a sublime seven-under 65 in the opening round to take the early lead at the ₹40 lakh J&K Open golf here on Wednesday.
Delhi’s Rashid Khan and Honey Baisoya as well as Gurugram’s Veer Ahlawat, the runner-up at the PGTI event last week, shot five-under 67 to be tied second.
Om Prakash Chouhan of Mhow, Chandigarh’s Akshay Sharma and Patna’s Aman Raj returned cards of four-under 68 to be tied fifth.
Delhi-based Kshitij Naveed Kaul, who has his origins in J&K, carded a 70 to be tied 14th.
Jyoti Randhawa posted an even-par 72 to occupy the joint 25th place.
Mane got off to a dream start with eight birdies on the first 10 holes.
Precision
He struck the ball with precision, landing it within six feet of the pin to set up birdies on the first, third, fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth.
On the 10th, Mane sank a 12-footer to move to eight-under for the day. After a terrific start, Udayan slowed down on the back-nine as the putts didn’t roll in. He dropped a bogey on the 15th but saved a good par from the bunker on the 16th.
Bengaluru’s Chikkarangappa ended the day with a 73 to be tied 39th while PGTI Order of Merit leader Karandeep Kochhar of Chandigarh was two shots back in tied 63rd place.