Kolkata based Divyanshu Bajaj posted an impressive 65,including hole-in-one, to be the best-placed Indian in tied second place while Germany’s Michael Hirmer shot a sizzling eight-under 64 for the first-round lead at The Challenge a US$300,000 event being played at the Karnataka Golf Association (KGA) course here on Tuesday.

German Philipp Katich and Englishman Alex Fitzpatrick shared the second spot with Bajaj after the first round of the second of two European Challenge Tour events in India.

The Indians enjoying home advantage had a good day as young Kartik Sharma and R Mari Muthu carded 6-under 66 each to be tied fifth while Aman Raj, eighth last week, and local lad Khalin Joshi shot 4-under 68.

Last week at the Black Bull Challenge, the first Challenge Tour event being played in India after 10 years, Om Prakash Chouhan emerged the winner after a superb final two rounds.

Divyanshu Bajaj had an ideal start to the day with a 25-feet birdie conversion on the 10th and hole-in-one on the 13th. The 33-year-old from Kolkata then had a stutter with a bogey on the 14th where he found the trees twice. He then rallied with five birdies between the 15th and the third hole where he drained some long putts. He set up a tap-in on the third with a terrific wedge shot from the rough from a distance of 150 yards.

The Indian looking for his maiden title, said, “It’s been a long time since I shot such a low score. I was playing well and performing consistently on the PGTI till 2019 just prior to the onset of Covid. But thereafter I had some health issues due to which I struggled on the golf course. I’ve addressed the health problems with some changes in my lifestyle such as restrictions in my diet. These changes along with my self-belief have helped me get my game back on track.

“I had an excellent start today and the hole-in-one on the 13th was a huge confidence-booster. After making bogey on the 14th, I came back really well. I was very stable from there on and kept the errors out of my game even though I missed a couple of birdie opportunities from 10 feet on the front-nine.I like this golf course as I’ve had some good finishes on the PGTI here. I’m carrying those good memories into this week.”

C Muniyappa, Samarth Dwivedi and Varun Parikh of Gujarat, carded 3-under 71 each to be tied 28th. M Dharma played 2-under 70. Karandeep Kochhar and Chikkarangappa were in tied 47th place with rounds of 70 while last week’s winner Om Prakash Chouhan and Rashid Khan were a further shot back in tied 66th place.

Leader Hirmer said, “I got off to a great start, my putter was really hot and I was in a nice flow this morning. I hit some good irons today and stayed patient. Last week I played well but didn’t make my putts. It was nice to see some putts drop today.”