Honey Baisoya of Delhi shot a splendid eight-under-64 to take the honours in round one of the PGTI Players Championship presented by Panchkula Golf Club here today.
Delhi's Manav Jaini, Rajiv Datar of Pune and Chikkarangappa S of Bangalore were two strokes behind Baisoya in joint second place.
Baisoya, playing his first season as a professional, made a dream start to the week with an amazing run of nine birdies against a lone bogey. The talented 17-year-old birdied the first hole with a seven-feet conversion and followed that up with an astounding 30-feet birdie putt on the sixth. Baisoya suffered a minor blip as he bogeyed the seventh.
The rookie golfer recovered well after a poor second shot on the eighth to make birdie from 15 feet. Things just got better from there on as he landed it within six feet for birdies on the ninth and 10th before driving the green on the 11th to set up his fourth successive birdie. His eagle putt lipped out on the 11th. Three more conversions from six to 10 feet helped him pick up birdies on the 15th, 16th and 17th.
Baisoya, who so far has one top-10 on the PGTI, said, "I was hitting it straight and that gave me a lot of confidence. I had a tremendous run of four successive birdies on the eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th that spurred me on further.
"I also had some good chip-putts. This is the ideal start to the week as I've not had a great season on the main tour so far and would like to change that. My two top-3 finishes on the Feeder Tour this year have lifted my confidence."
Jaini stitched together a fantastic bogey-free round to be placed joint second at six-under-66. He made a 15-footer for birdie on the seventh and narrowly missed two eagle opportunities on the 10th and 11th. Jaini's shot from 90 yards out stopped at the lip of the hole on the 10th and his chip from the edge of the green lipped out on the 11th.
Jaini, a winner on the PGTI this year, said, "My iron-play was good today, unlike last week when I was struggling with the irons.
