Muirfield (Gullane ,
Scotland
Kapur, currently ranked 210th in the world, had a
whirlwind front-nine on the first day of the 142nd Open Championships. He
had an unbelievable run of six birdies on the first seven holes that helped him
grab the lead. The 31-year-old held on to the lead till the 10th where he
found the bunker and double-bogeyed to slip into joint second behind Zach
Johnson. He landed his shot in the bunker once again on the 14th to drop
another stroke.
Shiv’s sublime effort on the first-nine ensured he ended the
day in tied fourth at three-under for the day.
At three-under 68, Kapur was two behind Zach Johnson, the
2007 Masters champion and just one behind Spaniard Rafael Cabrera-Bello and veteran
American Mark O’Meara, who shot 67 each. Miguel Angel Jimenez, Dustin Johnson,
Brandt Snedeker and Tom Lehman were tied with Kapur at 68.
Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Angel Cabrera and Francesco
Molinari were among those at two-under.
Kapur, making his second appearance at the Open, was proud
of his opening round effort. He said, “Yeah, it's nice. Nobody is expecting me
to be up there and nobody was really. It's a funny name in the middle of all
those sort of proven Major winners and stuff. But it was nice to see my name up
there. At least I can hold my head up high and say I led The Open Championship,
the greatest tournament I think there is. That's something I'll take a lot of
pride in.”
Kapur went on to add, “I got off to a dream start. I birdied
my first three, and after that I just said, just keep doing what you're doing,
do the basics right, hit fairways and greens. Probably the fastest greens I've
ever played in my life. They weren't green, they were white out there. I
couldn't get the ball to sort of stop. So I knew it's tough to hole putts out
there, but you've just got to keep giving yourself chances.”
Talking of the difference between the front and back nines,
he said, ““It's probably pretty close to the best nine holes I've ever played.
The back nine, obviously was a bit scratchy. The putts fell for me on the front
nine. I didn't really feel like I played badly on the back nine either. But on
the 10th, I found a fairway bunker and made a three-putt out of nowhere. That
happens on this golf course. I hit a bad drive on the 14th as I pulled it
a bit left. But you have to take your medicine, take your bogey and just get
out of there. I guess if at the start of the day you'd said 3-under I would
take it. Obviously when you're 6-under after 9, you hope you can hold on to it
on the back nine. All in all the way the course was playing, I don't think I
could really complain.”
Kapur, who missed the cut by one stroke in his only previous
appearance at the Open back in 2006, on Thursday, became the first Indian
ever to hold the sole lead at any stage in a Major. Jeev Milkha Singh had
shared the lead after nine holes on the opening day of the 2007 US Masters.
The Delhi
lad’s putter was on fire on the fast greens at Muirfield. He had a great putt
on the first and then hit his approach shot on the second to a tap-in distance.
He followed this up with a long putt on the third to accumulate three birdies
in a row.
Kapur made par on the fourth before firing three more
birdies in a row from the fifth through the seventh.
His sixth birdie on the seventh made him the sole leader, as
he leapt past the 2007 Masters Champion, American Zach Johnson (66).
In the morning, Johnson, Miguel Angel Jimenez (68) and Mark
O’Meara (67) had scorched the front nine with five-under 31 each but Kapur went
one better.
After a victory-drought for seven years since his first and
only triumph on the Asian Tour in 2006, Kapur finally won at the end of 2012 in
a domestic event in India Ahmedabad , India
Press release
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