Amardip Malik was the best placed Indian at tied-third after he overcame two rain stoppages to return a card of four-under 67 at the end of the first day's play of the inaugural Bashundhara Bangladesh Open here today.
Among the other leading Indians were Sanjay Kumar and Sujjan Singh, who carded 68 each to be tied sixth, while Ajeetesh Sandhu shot 69 to be tied ninth.
Khalin Joshi (71) in tied 20th and Chiragh Kumar (72) in tied 33rd were other prominent Indians on first day.
The more experienced Rahil Gangjee (74) was way behind in 80th place.
Singaporean veteran Mardan Mamat scored a five-under-par 66 to share the clubhouse lead with Casey O'Toole of the United States in the yet-to-finish opening round. Thirty players were yet to finish their round on a day when two stoppages resulted in loss of more than two hours of play in the morning.
"It was tough out there, especially with the delays and rain. The rain delay didn't help at all because I returned to three-putt on two holes (3 and 8) for bogeys! I'm glad I recovered nicely," said Malik.
"I hit it well in the wind so I'm really happy with my score. I missed only one fairway today and kept it in play. That was the plan at the start. The golf course is tight and you need to be good off the tees. That's something which I made sure I did and I was able to pull that off," he added.
After winning his first career title in PGTI Indian tour last year, 30-year-old Malik is now looking at current Asian Tour Order of Merit leader Anirban Lahiri for inspiration.
"A lot of Indians are doing well, especially Anirban Lahiri and that's motivation for me. If one of us can do well, why not all of us?" asked Malik, who has been a pro for almost 10 years but won his first title only last year.
Local superstar Bangladeshi Siddikur Rahman stumbled to a disappointing 72 to trail the early pacesetters by six shots. Mardan, a four-time Asian Tour winner, stayed patient despite two weather delays to take his place atop the leaderboard with six birdies at the USD 300,000 Asian Tour event at the challenging Kurmitola Golf Club.
O'Toole, an Asian Development Tour (ADT) regular, birdied all the par-fives to tie for the lead in his first ever Asian Tour event, while Malik and Carlos Pigem of Spain trailed by one shot in third place.
Janne Kaske of Finland, who won his first title on the ADT two weeks ago, placed sixth alongside Sanjay and Sujjan on matching 68s.
