TATA Steel PGTI Players Championship: Bangladesh golfer Jamal Hossain dominates Round 1

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 4

Bangladesh golfer Jamal Hossain dominated the first round of the TATA Steel PGTI Players Championship, at Panchkula Golf Club, by carding a 7-under 65 to lead Round 1. Delhi’s Harshjeet Singh Sethie ended his opening round at second spot with a 6-under 66 and another Bangladesh golfer Badal Hossain trailed by two shots to be placed at the third spot with a score of 5-under 67.

Chandigarh’s Yuvraj Singh Sandhu and Panchkula’s amateur golfer Brijesh Kumar carded identical totals of 4-under 68 to be tied-4th. The other five players also bunched in tied-4th were Om Prakash Chouhan, Arjun Sharma, Sandeep Singh, Jay Pandya and Sri Lankan Anura Rohana.

Hossain’s round consisted of six birdies, an eagle through a chip-in on the fifth hole and a lone bogey. He also chipped-in for birdie on the 13th. The standout feature of Jamal’s exceptional round was his driving that continues to impress and his chipping as he set up birdie putts within four feet on three occasions, while also managing a massive 15-footer birdie putt on the 18th hole.

“My driving has been my strength all season but with my second shots and putting also clicked today. I was expecting a good score. This year I have focused on my driving and I am happy to see it yield results,” said Jamal.

Trailing Jamal by a shot at 6-under 66 was Delhi golfer Sethie. He began his day with a birdie on the 10th but then dropped a double bogey on the 12th where he hit it out of bounds. However, he came back well with a tap-in birdie on the 14th and two long birdie conversions on the 16th and 18th. His front-nine was all about his short-game as he made a chip-in on the fourth and three other chip-putts for birdies.

Rashid Khan, who just returned from Taiwan after narrowly missing out on the winner’s cheque in a nail-biting play-off finish on the Asian Tour, struck a first round of 69 to be tied-11th.

Among the other top names, PGTI Order of Merit leader Ajeetesh Sandhu was tied-23rd at 70, Olympian Udayan Mane was tied-33rd at 71, while defending champion Chikkarangappa S was tied-50th at 72.

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