Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri seemed headed for a fine and flawless outing before a late double bogey blotted his first round card in the Kings Cup at Hua Hin on Thursday.
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Lahiri, starting on the 10th, was five-under through 15 holes before dropping a double bogey on the seventh, his 16th hole of the day.
His round of 69 placed him tied eighth and four-behind joint leaders Prom Meesawat of Thailand and Swede Rikard Karlberg.
Jyoti Randhawa and SSP Chowrasia shot two-under 70 each to be tied 17th, while Rahil Gangjee, who had five different outcomes on five successive holes from 10th to 14th, shot 71 to be tied 31st.
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Gangjee shot birdie-par-double bogey-eagle and bogey in succession from 10th to 14th.
Digvijay Singh (72) was 42nd, while Chiragh Kumar, Sujjan Singh and Abhinav Lohan carded 75 each to be 86th and Himmat Rai shot 77 to be tied 122nd.
“(I am) obviously disappointed to finish the way I did but I think I played really well. I probably only missed two shots all day — on number seven where I hit the ball in the wrong spot. Otherwise it would have been a flawless round,” Lahiri said.
Describing his travails on the seventh, he said, “I was in the fairway trap and over-calculated the wind and hit it over the back and got my ball plugged in the downslope of the greenside bunker. It was impossible to hit a clean shot from there and I hit my next shot into the other greenside bunker!”
But quickly he composed himself and added, “I would have liked to play better given how I played in the middle of the round. Having said that, I’ll be happy if I can keep shooting in the 60s.”
Prom lives in Hua Hin, while Karlberg, puts down Hua Hin’s Black Mountain as his home course. Both shot seven-under-par 65 at the USD one million event.
Chinese Taipei’s Lin Wen-tang posted a 66 to trail the co-leaders by one alongside three-time Asian Tour winner Angelo Que of the Philippines.
The conditions were gusty in the morning, but the 29-year-old Prom did well to land two eagles, five birdies and two bogeys.