In-form Gurgaon golfer Veer Ahlawat on his way into the day one lead of the inaugural Cidco Open at Navi Mumbai’s Kharghar Valley course on Tuesday. Image courtesy PGTI.
By Rahul Banerji
Jaipur Open winner Veer Ahlawat fired a 6 under par 65 for a two-shot lead on the opening day of the inaugural Cidco Open at Navi Mumbai’s Kharghar Valley Golf Course on Tuesday.
This being the first ever professional event at the Navi Mumbai course, the Gurgaon golfer’s score will count as the course record, the PGTI said.
Ahlawat, who scored a dramatic win at Rambagh two weeks ago continued his fine run of form at the Rs 1 crore event presented by Larsen & Toubro.
Italy’s Michele Ortolani and Koichiro Sato of the US shot 4 under 67s at the par-71 course to share second place.
There were two more overseas players in the top eight as Uganda’s Joshua Seale and Sri Lankan N. Thangaraja were tied for fourth on 68 along with Manoj S., Dhruv Sheoran and Manu Gandas.
Dipankar Kaushal (69) and Mani Ram (75) fired holes-in-one to be tied 10th and tied 69th respectively on the day.
Mani Ram, who scored the first hole-in-one at the new venue, had his moment of glory on the 17th hole while Dipankar achieved the feat on the third hole.
Early break
Ahlawat, a 10th tee starter on Tuesday, got some early momentum with a three-foot birdie conversion on hole 12 and a 20-foot eagle conversion on 14.
The 29-year-old made good use of his long hitting prowess on a course suited for his style of play with birdie tap-ins on holes one and twp.
Ahlawat then drained a 15-footer for his final birdie of the day on four.
“I’ve been feeling good about my game since returning to play on the PGTI in October including a victory,” Ahlawat said later.
“This course suits my game as I feel three out of the four par-5s are reachable in two shots while a couple of par-4s are drivable for me.
“However, coming from colder weather at last week’s event in Delhi, one needs to adapt quickly to the warmer conditions here. I enjoyed my first competitive round here at KVGC and feel it’s a great layout.”
Also read: Cidco Open takes PGTI to new territory with Navi Mumbai event
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