Honey Baisoya takes day one honours at Goodricke East India

Honey Baisoya in action at Royal Calcutta Golf Club on December 19, 2011

Kolkata, December 19, 2011: The 15-year-old Delhi’s Honey Baisoya surprised everyone after firing a two-under 70 to take the opening round lead of the Goodricke East India Amateur Golf Championship at windswept Royal Calcutta Golf Club here. Bangalore’s S. Chikkarangappa carded one-under 71 to take the second position while Local boy Kader Ali, who plays the circuit with the support of his coach Indarjit Bhalotia all across India, returned with a level par round in a tie along with the winner of last week’s RCGC Cup, Angad Cheema for the third place.

The fairways and the greens looked in favour of the local boys through out the day as Rohan Shroff and S. K. Pappu played one-over 71 along with Delhi’s Vikram Rana and Kapurthala’s Ashbeer Singh Saini as

A shy Baisoya, whose father usually caddies for him, seemed more comfortable with every shot when a local caddie, Bolto carried his bag. Baisoya sank four birdies on 4^th, 9^th, 11^th, and 14th, made two bogeys on 5^th, 8^th and played 8 regulations for the day. A consistent player on the junior as well as on amateur circuit, Baisoya did three hours of practice in the last two days. “Today, I was hitting the second shots like I never did before on a course like this. Though, my putting was not that great last week during RCGC Cup, I and my father made some corrections to get the right posture and that’s what helped me in coming back with a low score round today, said Baisoya.”

Chikka, after getting better with the right yardages and the green speed than last week, shot a birdie on the opening hole, 4^th, 7^th, 14^th, 18^th and bogeyed the 5^th, 8^th, 9^th, 10^th. A delighted Chikka said, “Finally, I got a good start and pretty satisfied round. I made some silly mistakes on 8^th where I used the pitching wedge and hit the 7-iron which went five yards near to the green but a good putt lipped out because of my wrong judgment. I could come with a better score if there was a proper reading of the line by me.”

Coming from a golfing family, Kader Ali picked up the game from his elder brother Yusuf Ali who plays on the PGTI circuit. The 26-year-old, whose dream is to be on top among his friends in his city, had three birdies on 9^th, 15^th and 16^th. Though, he dropped couple of shots for a bogey on 11^th, 13^th and 14^th, he managed to make it to the top-three. Ali said, “I want to play at the Asian Tour level with my brother one day to make my club proud of both of us.” 

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