Tournament host Jeev Milkha Singh and fellow Legends Tour regular Jyoti Randhawa shared third place as the best-placed Indians after day one of the India Legends Championship at the Jaypee Greens Golf Course on Friday.
Brazil’s Adilson Da Silva was alongside Singh and Randhawa on 4 under par 68, three strokes behind event leader Joakim Haeggman, who fired home eight birdies against one bogey to sign off for a 7 under 65 card at the inaugural USD 500,000 HSBC India Legends Championship co-sanctioned by the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI).
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Clark Dennis of the US, leader for much of the first morning was overhauled by Haeggman after setting the clubhouse total of 5 under 67 playing alongside Randhawa (68) and South Africa’s Keith Horne (72), who is currently ninth on the Legends Tour Order of Merit.
Legends Tour Qualifying School winner Randhawa started shakily, dropping three shots against one birdie before the turn. The 52-year-old sparked to life on the second nine, firing an astonishing sequence of birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie-birdie to pick up six strokes in the five-hole stretch.
Said Randhawa later, “I started not too well really. It was not a good putting experience in the first nine, but then I probably got hot in the back nine and made some putts. I knew what I wanted to do and I did that in the back nine.
“That eagle on the second was great, I had also birdied the first. So that really kept me going. I think after the seventh hole, I just found out what I needed to do with my putting stroke because I was missing putts in the front nine. And then I just stuck with it in the back nine and made a lot of putts.”
Jeev said, “I’ve been playing very good golf, to be honest, in the last few weeks. I’ve struggled with my short game, but it was a little better today. I’ve been working quite hard. I made five birdies, one bogey.
“That bogey shouldn’t have happened also because I was on the edge of the green. I was only 10 feet from the hole. But that’s okay. I had a lot of birdie opportunities on the golf course, which I didn’t convert. I’ll take today, tomorrow’s another day and look forward to having a good week.”
Teeing off from the front nine, Jeev played steady golf and picked up two strokes before the turn without a blemish on his card. The back nine was more lively with three birdies against one bogey that made for his 4 under total for the day.
PGTI board member and full-time card holder Amandeep Johl was the next best-placed of the home players on 1 over par 73 and in a share of 19th place with two birdies and three bogeys. The vastly-experienced Mukesh Kumar was 2 over 74 and tied for 29th, with Harmeet Kahlon, Sanjay Kumar, Vijay Kumar, Vishal Singh and Digvijay Singh further down the leaderboard.
