Jammu, Oct 23: Delhi-based golfers Sachin Baisoya and Shaurya Bhattacharya carded five-under 67 to share the honours after the opening round of the J&K Open 2024 here on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Udayan Mane, Akshay Sharma, Arjun Prasad and Kapil Kumar were tied for third place with scores of 68 and four-under each.
Sachin, who secured a top 10 in seven of the previous eight PGTI tournaments, started the week with a birdie on the opening, followed by a quiet spell till the eighth, where he picked up a tap-in birdie.
His only bogey on the ninth was followed by a solid back-nine, picking up four more strokes.
On the back nine, Sachin made a couple of long conversions, landing his tee shot within inches of the flag for birdie on the 17th.
“My recent form has been good, so that gave me a lot of confidence coming into this week. My tee shots were excellent today barring just two holes and that contributed to my good score on this narrow course,” he said after the day’s play.
“Besides the birdies, I also made two quality up and downs for pars on the third and 18th. The key on this course will be to place the ball well off the tee.”
Shaurya was off to a mediocre start, bogeying his opening two holes, the 10th and 11th, before rallying with four birdies on the back nine thereafter, which included three conversions from a range of 10 to 18 feet.
He kept up with the commendable work on the front nine as he scored three more birdies, courtesy of his terrific hitting.
“The fairways are narrow here at JTGC, so keeping the ball in play is very important. That’s what I did well today. I gave myself many opportunities, and the putter was hot today,” Shaurya stated.
“I didn’t have the best of starts, but knowing that scoring would not be easy here, I told myself to create chances and just be ready to grind it out and be patient.” (PTI)
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