Gaganjeet Bhullar opened the week with a strong four-under 68 while Ajeetesh Sandhu started with a 69 in the first round of the Yeangder Tournament Players Championship (TPC) here today.
Bhullar is just one shot behind the leaders -- Peradol Panyathanasedh of Thailand and Johannes Veerman of the United States -- in tied-3rd place.
Bhullar, a seven-time winner on Asian Tour, is a past winner here in 2012 when the event was reduced to 54 holes.
Today he started from the 10th and had six birdies, four of them on his second nine, between the third and eighth holes.
Sandhu started with a string of nine pars before finding back to back birdies on 10th and 11th, and added a third on 13th. A bogey on 14th halted the run but he found a final birdie on 15th that saw him end the day at three-under 69 at tied 7th spot.
As many as 15 Indians are playing in the tournament this week. Arjun Prasad (71) was at tied-22nd, Shubhankar Sharma and Arjun Atwal with 72 each at tied-35th, Shiv Kapur and Chiragh Kumar with 73 each at tied-54th.
Jeev Milkha Singh and S Chikkarangappa carded 74 each to be tied-66th, Rahil Gangjee and Rashid Khan shot 75 each to tied-82nd, while Khalin (76), Himmat Rai (77), Honey Baisoya (78) and Sujjan Singh (79) were further behind.
One of Bhullar's highlights during the round was a brilliant 25 foot birdie on the par three eighth hole.
"It is a decent start. It wasn't easy. When we started it was calm but around the turn it started to blow a lot. I rolled the ball really well and gave myself a lot of good looks on the green. I holed a few good putts including a 25- foot birdie putt (hole 8)," Bhullar said.
"It is not easy to read the greens this week. That's probably the trickiest par. It will be a test of patience out here. This course looks easy but it can get you any given time. You got to keep yourself calm and composed on the golf course. Personally I know I'm playing good and it is just a matter of time before it clicks," he added.
Little-known Peradol, today returned with a flawless card, while Veerman, the reigning Asian Development Tour (ADT) Order of Merit winner, traded six birdies against one bogey.
Bhullar, Danny Chia of Malaysia, and American duo of Jarin Todd and Dodge Kemmer were a further shot back in tied third place at the Linkou International Golf and Country Club.
Lu Wei-chih of Chinese Taipei fired a hole-in-one on the par-three 11th hole before returning with a score of 69. He is tied in seventh place alongside Sandhu, Fan Chiang Hao-chuan of Chinese Taipei, Antonio Lascuna of the Philippines and Lionel Weber of France.
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