Ashbeer and Kunal joint leaders

by sportswire4u.blogspot.com
Panchkula, June 16
Kaputhala-based Ashbeer Singh Saini carded one-over 73 on a day of tough scoring to share lead with Kunal Bhatia on day one in the Lalit Suri Northern India Junior Golf Championship at the Panchkula Golf Club here today. Close on their heels, just a stroke behind, was Khalin Joshi, who carded two-over 74 to be placed third.
Shubhankar Sharma of Patiala raced ahead in Category ‘B’ with a round of four-over 76. Shubhankar had finished second at the Southern India to Vashist Pawar. Vashisht, however, had a bad day in office and could only put together a round of 17-over 89.
Category ‘C’ is being led by Harsh Gangwar and Viraj Madhappa, each shooting 11-over 83. Piyush Sangwan is in third place, two shots back after his 13-over 85. Vidit Singh, who strolled to a win in this category at the Southern India, didn’t start very well here. He is placed tied 12 th as he only managed an 18-over 90.
Ashbeer didn’t have a very good start, with two bogeys through his first holes – the par-four first and the par-three fourth. He picked up a shot on the fifth hole, but dropped another bogey right after, finally making the turn at two-over. He then bogeyed the par-four 14th to go three-over for the day, before pulling off a run of three straight birdies from the 15th to the 17th to get back on even par. Unforunately, another bogey on the finishing hole ensured he would only be sharing the lead after the end of Day 1.
Kunal Bhatia had a bogey but three birdies on the front nine to be two-under at the turn. But he followed that up with a bogey on the 10th and a double bogey on the par-five 15th to drop back to one-over for the round.
Chikka had four birdies, five bogeys and a double bogey in his dramatic round.
Players in the U-10 category will start their campaign on Wednesday as they compete over 54 holes to determine the winner in category ‘D’.
Leaderboard-: Category A: 73: Ashbir Saini. 73: Kunal Bhatia. 74; Khalin Joshi. 75: Rishi Raj Singh. 75: Chikkarangappa. 75: Pawan Kumar.
Category B: 76: Shubhankar Sharma. 79: Manpreet Mann. 80: Ankur Chadha. 81: Harman Virk. 81: Arjun Singh.
Category C: 83: Harsh Gangwar. 83: Viraj Madhappa. 85: Piyush Sangwan. 86: Yuvraj Sandhu. 86: Arush Ahuja