Om Prakash Chouhan sets the pace in round one

Pune, April 24, 2012: Om Prakash Chouhan of Mhow set the pace in round one of the PGTI Players Championship presented by Oxford Golf & Country Club after he shot a sizzling six-under-66 on Tuesday. Ranjit Singh of Chandigarh and Arshdeep Tiwana of the Golden Greens Golf & Country Club, Gurgaon fired scores of five-under-67 to be joint second.

Om Prakash Chouhan made an amazing seven birdies against a lone bogey in his opening round to take the lead. Chouhan enjoyed a great start as he landed his second shot within two feet of the pin to set up a birdie on the first. He followed that up with a chip-in for birdie on the sixth. The 25-year-old collected two more birdies on the 11^th and 13^thbefore conceding his lone bogey of the day on the 14^th.

Om Prakash produced two magnificent approach shots that landed within five feet to end up with birdies on the 15^th and 16^th. He then closed the day in style by converting a 15-feet birdie putt on the 18^th.

Chouhan said, “I stuck to my game-plan of making maximum fairways and hitting it as close as possible on the greens. I focused a lot on my hitting and therefore landed it quite close on many occasions. I need to play in similar fashion over the next three days in order to stay in contention.”

 Ranjit Singh and Arshdeep Tiwana made six birdies and a bogey in their respective rounds to close the day in tied second at 67. Ranjit made birdies on all the four par-five holes and sank birdie putts from over 15-feet on the 12^th and third.

 Arshdeep, on the other hand, hit it within four feet for birdies on the second, 15^th, 16^thand 17^th and made birdie putts from a range of 15 to 20 feet on the eighth and ninth.

 Harendra Gupta of Chandigarh is in fourth place at four-under-68 while Vijay Kumar of Lucknow and Delhi’s Shamim Khan are in tied fifth place at three-under-69.

Photo caption: Om Prakash Chouhan in action at Golden Greens Golf & Country Club, Gurgaon, on April 24, 2012.

A PGTI Press release