Anura Rohana's topsy-turvy day delivered TAKE Chennai a tenuous one-stroke lead after the opening round of the Louis Philippe Cup. The Sri Lankan's four-under 68 was the (joint) lowest individual score at the KGA course on Wednesday, as Chennai, also counting S.S.P. Chowrasia's two-under 70, moved up top with a tally of 138.
There remained little to separate the top teams. Dev Ellora Chandigarh, Puravankara Bangalore, and The 3C Delhi all await one shot behind; the bottleneck stretches with Ansal API Lucknow and Navratna Ahmedabad joint fifth at 140.
With only four teams to make the cut for the semifinals, an engrossing day's play is in the offing on Thursday.
Rohana, who teed off on the 10th, had wretched luck to begin with. He bogeyed thrice inside his first seven holes, his putts lipping out on all three occasions.
At three-over, things were looking grim but a birdie on the 18th, when he chipped in from a bunker, turned things around.
Rohana sank three further birdies in a row, aided in no small part by robust approach shots. “I had a slow start today but I came back well on the second nine (five-under),” he said afterwards.
Harendra Gupta also returned a card of four-under for the round; he and Gaganjeet Bhullar (71) piloting the Chandigarh team into joint second.
Local favourite Anirban Lahiri endured a disappointing spell on the back nine but had still done enough to finish two-under 69. Teammate Manav Jaini's score of 70 ensured Puravankara Bangalore stayed only one stroke behind the leader.
Shiv Kapur did well to shoot a joint day-low of four-under 68, helping Delhi into second.
Veterans Jyoti Randhawa (two-under 70) and Jeev Milkha Singh (one-under 71) endured disappointing outings, their sides languishing in eighth and 10th respectively.
The scores (after 18 holes): TAKE Chennai (Anura Rohana 68, S.S.P. Chowrasia 70) 138; Dev Ellora Chandigarh (Harendra Gupta 68, Gaganjeet Bhullar 71), Puravankara Bangalore (Anirban Lahiri 69, Manav Jaini 70), The 3C Delhi (Shiv Kapur 68, Rashid Khan 71) 139; Ansal API Lucknow (Vijay Kumar 69, Md. Siddikur Rehman 71), Navratna Ahmedabad (Mithun Perera 70, Vinod Kumar 70) 140; AVT Kolkata (Chiragh Kumar 69, Feroz Ali Mollah 72) 141; DLF Gurgaon (Jyoti Randhawa 70, Himmat Rai 72) 142; Oxford Group West (Ashok Kumar 71, Mukesh Kumar 72) 143; Shubhkamna Noida (Jeev Milkha Singh 71, Gaurav Pratap Singh 73) 144.
