Tour Championship Chhibber, Bedi and Thangaraja top position after first round

Delhi Delhi:Delhi's Sarthak Chhibber, Chandigarh's Adil Bedi and Sri Lankan golfer N. Thangaraja shot six-under 65 to take the joint top spot after the first round of the Rs 3 crore Tour Championship 2024. This session-end event of PGTI is being played on Thursday at Beldih and Golmuri Golf Courses. The four players tied for second place with scores of five under 66 were Pune's Rohan Dhole Patil, Delhi's Shamim Khan, Bengaluru's M Dharma and Bangladesh's Jamal Hussain. Two-time Tata Steel Tour Championship winner Udayan Mane, PGTI ranking leader Veer Ahlawat and SSP Chawrasia finished tied for eighth with scores of four-under 67. Defending champion and two-time winner Gaganjit Bhullar shot an even-par 71 to finish tied at 34th.

In the first round of the tournament, the players played their first nine holes at Golmuri Golf Course and the second nine holes at Beldih Golf Course, while the other half of the players played first at Beldih and then at Golmuri. The same format will be adopted in the next three rounds of the tournament to be held in Jamshedpur, in which the par for the round will be 71. Sarthak Chhibber, currently 27th in the PGTI merit list with three top-10s this season, started off with three birdies in the first six holes, hitting from very close on most of the occasions. After a bogey on the eighth hole, he bounced back with a brilliant chip to make birdie on the ninth hole.

With his ball-striking at his best, 26-year-old Sarthak, who was looking to win his maiden title, bagged three more birdies on the back-nine, including a brilliant up-and-down from the bunker. Chhibber made birdies on all four par-5s. Sarthak said, “I enjoyed a very good start. An early birdie and three good par-saves, including two from long-range, kept my momentum going. I was consistently hitting from close and fortunately, my The short game lasted. My performance was not good in the last two events, but I am confident of performing consistently in this season.

“As far as both golf courses are concerned, the conditions have been very good. I think Golmuri can be more aggressive, while Beldih requires a little more planning,” he said. Adil Bedi was one over on the back-nine, where he made two birdies at the cost of three bogeys. However, Adil, who is currently ranked 48th on the PGTI money list, bounced back with a brilliant front-nine where he made five birdies and an eagle on the final nine. His eagle and two birdies came as a result of conversions from range of 10 to 15 feet.

Adil said, “After a slow start, I found my rhythm in the second half of my rounds. It may not be reflected in my scores, but my game has been going well recently. Now it's time to put everything together this week.” A matter of.” Thangaraja, who is currently ranked 38th in the PGTI Order of Merit, produced seven birdies and one bogey during his round of 65 and shared the opening day honors with Sarthak and Adil. Jamshedpur's three professional players Karan Tonk (72), Digvijay Singh (74) and Kurush Hirji (78) finished 45th, 54th and 60th respectively.

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