City’s Karandeep Kochhar posted a round of 6-under 66 and positioned himself in the tied-second place after the first day of the US$500,000 AM Green IGPL Bharath Classic at the Mazagan Beach & Golf Resort in Morocco.
The 26-year-old local lad now stands one shot behind the leader, Thailand’s Runchanapong Youprayong, who carded 7-under 65 that included eighth birdies against one bogey.
Kochhar, a four-time winner in India, added a breakthrough win on the AM Green IGPL Tour late last year with a victory in IGPL Dubai hosted by Shiv Kapur. Kochhar had a four-birdie streak early in the round from the second hole and turned in 5-under 31, before picking two more birdies against one bogey in his second nine for a 66.
Sharing the second place with Kochhar were Australia’s Will Florimo and Austria’s Nicklas Regner.
The next best Indian in the field was Aryan Roopa Anand, who armed with confidence that leapfrogged since his win at the AM Green IGPL Congo, shot 4-under 68 despite two bogeys. He had six birdies including three in a row on the front nine of the course from the third to the fifth.
One of IGPL’s stars, Kochhar missed the cut last week but is hoping to make up for it, said, “I think I played really well overall. I drove it well, hit the irons well and putted well, because I think last week I struggled with my putting. I put in a lot of work over the weekend and the first few days on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as well. So I think all of that, all of that work really showed in today’s round,” said the youngster.
“The course wasn’t playing that easy, I would say, especially midway through the round. It was really windy and that whole, that stretch of 12, 13, 14, 15 is not easy. I am looking forward to the next few rounds. The course is in great shape. It’s not short, it’s quite windy, the greens are good. So looking forward to the next couple of days,” he added.
Other prominent Indians were Shaurya Bhattacharya, Raghav Chugh and young Kartik Singh, who all shot 2-under 70 each to be Tied-24th.
