Ashbeer, Kunal share lead in Lalit Suri Northern India Championship

Panchkula, June 16: It had threatened to be a battle between the in-form players Ashbeer Singh Saini and Chikkarangappa, and it was the Kapurthala boy who made the first move at the Lalit Suri Northern India Junior Golf Championship being played at the Panchkula Golf Club. Ashbeer shot one-over 73 on a day of tough scoring to be in joint lead along with Kunal Bhatia. Close on their heels, just a shot back, is Khalin Joshi, who shot a two-over 74 to be placed third.

 

Chikkarangappa, fresh from his win at the amateur tour event in Bangalore last week, is in fifth place after having shot a three-over 75. He shares the fifth spot with Rishi Raj Singh and Pawan Kumar.

 

Patiala lad, Shubhankar Sharma raced ahead in Category 'B' with a round of four-over 76. Shubhankar had finished second at the Southern India to Vashist Pawar. Vashisht, however, had a bad day in office and could only put together a round of 17-over 89.

 

Category 'C' is being led by Harsh Gangwar and Viraj Madhappa, each shooting 11-over 83. Piyush Sangwan is in third place, two shots back after his 13-over 85. Vidit Singh, who strolled to a win in this category at the Southern India, didn't start very well here. He is placed tied 12 ^th as he only managed an 18-over 90.

 

Ashbeer didn't have a very good start, with two bogeys through his first holes – the par-four first and the par-three fourth. He picked up a shot on the fifth hole, but dropped another bogey right after, finally making the turn at two-over. He then bogeyed the par-four 14^th to go three-over for the day, before pulling off a run of three straight birdies from the 15^th to the 17^th to get back on even par. Unforunately, another bogey on the finishing hole ensured he would only be sharing the lead after the end of Day 1.

 

Kunal Bhatia had a bogey but three birdies on the front nine to be two-under at the turn. But he followed that up with a bogey on the 10^th and a double bogey on the par-five 15^th to drop back to one-over for the round.

Chikka had four birdies, five bogeys and a double bogey in his dramatic round.

 

Players in the U-10 category will start their campaign on Wednesday as they compete over 54 holes to determine the winner in category 'D'.

 

 The Lalit Suri Northern India Golf Championship is the second leg of the Lalit Suri Junior Golf Tour 2009-10.

 

Leaderboard-:

 

 

Category A

 

73: ASHBIR SAINI

73: KUNAL BHATIA

 

74; KHALIN JOSHI

 

75: RISHI RAJ SINGH

75: CHIKKARANGAPPA

75: PAWAN KUMAR

 

 

Category B

 

 

76: Shubhankar Sharma

 

79: Manpreet Mann

 

80: Ankur Chadha

 

81: HARMAN VIRK

81: ARJUN SINGH

 

 

Category C

 

83: HARSH GANGWAR

83: VIRAJ MADHAPPA

 

85: PIYUSH SANGWAN

 

86: YUVRAJ SANDHU

86: ARUSH AHUJA

 

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By :  News Team