Rashid Khan
Colombo, April 16, 2013: The Sri Lanka Ports Authority Open
2013 promoted by Sports Mantra and Pro Golf Pvt. Ltd, got underway today at The
Royal Colombo Golf Club. Over 100 professional golfers, all looking for a share
of the prize purse of USD 70,000, teed off along with six amateur golfers from Sri Lanka .
Indian professional Rashid Khan finished day one on top of
the leaderboard. The Delhi boy, who won the PGTI
event at the Classic Golf Resort in the outskirts of Delhi
last week, seems to have carried his good form to Colombo .
Rashid started the tournament with five birdies in a row
from the 10th through the 14th. He sank another birdie on 16th but
bogeyed the 17th to be five-under at the turn. Rashid dropped a shot on
the fourth but birdied the sixth and seventh to finish his round
with a score of six-under-65.
“The greens on this course are not easy to negotiate. One
needs to adjust to the green speed quickly in order to perform well here. I’m
feeling good and lucky to have this kind of start. My putting was good and
having pocketed five birdies at the turn was a great advantage,” said the
22-year-old Rashid.
Divyanshu Bajaj of Kolkata trails Rashid by one stroke. Divyanshu,
playing for the first time at Royal Colombo Golf Club, started his round with a
bogey on the first but recovered immediately thanks to a birdie on the second.
He went on to record an eagle on the sixth and three more birdies to end
the day at five-under-66.
“Playing at this golf course for the first time and not
having a practice round was difficult, but I walked few holes yesterday and got
a feel of the course. The main idea was to keep the ball on the fairways and I
was lucky to do so. Greens were playing a little slow due to the heavy rain
yesterday and one had to take that into account today,” said Bajaj.
Angad Cheema of Panchkula and Bangalore ’s M. Dharma were tied for third
place at four-under-67. While Dharma had seven birdies and three bogeys in his
first round, Cheema made six birdies against two bogeys.
Local hero and winner of the first ever professional golf
tournament in Sri Lanka
last year, Mithun Perera finished his round at two-under-69. “Due to heavy rain
yesterday, the conditions have changed a lot and adjusting with the current
playing conditions after playing in India
and in different parts of Asia is not easy,”
said Mithun.
The tournament continues tomorrow with the second round
being played. At the end of round two, the field will be reduced to the top 50
players and ties, who will then play rounds three and four on Thursday and
Friday respectively.
Sri Lanka Ports Authority Open 2013 is title sponsored by
Sri Lanka Ports Authority and Gold sponsor Dialog Enterprise, co-promoted by
Pro Golf Ltd., a Colombo based sports events and
Distribution Company, and Sports Mantra, a New Delhi based sports events and marketing
company.
Top 10 Scores of Round 1 of Sri Lanka Ports Authority
Open 2013:
RASHID KHAN -6 (65), DIVYANSHU BAJAJ -5 (66), M DHARMA -4
(67), ANGAD CHEEMA -4 (67), RAJU ALI MOLLAH -3 (68), CHIKKARANGAPPA
S -3 (68), ABHIJIT SINGH CHADHA -3 (68), VISHAL SINGH -3
(68), AMARDIP SINH MALIK -2 (69), SHIVARAM SHRESTHA -2 (69);
MITHUN PERERA -2 (69), DIPANKAR KAUSHAL -2 (69).
Press release
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