Nineteen-year-old Shubhankar Sharma got off to a flying start, to remain tied fourth, at the opening round lead at the USD 300,000 Bashundhara Bangladesh Open, here today.
Sharma, a winner on the PGTI Indian Tour, carded five-under 67 at the par-71 at the Kurmitola Golf Club.
Sharma is two behind co-leaders, Japan's Shunya Takeyasu and Soomin Lee of Korea, who shot matching seven-under-par 64s.
The next best Indian was experienced and five-time winner on Asian Tour, Gaganjeet Bhullar (67), who at tied 7th, showed a welcome return to form after missing the cut last two weeks in Singapore and Myanmar.
Also tied 7th was Rahul Bajaj (67), while two-time ADT winner, S Chikkarangappa (68) was tied 14th, alongside home favourite Siddikur Rahman (68).
Rahil Gangjee, who played three rounds with fever in Myanmar, was tied-23rd at 69.
Shankar Das and Khalin Joshi carded 70 and were tied 38th, while Ashok Kumar (71) was tied 57th with Sujjan Singh and Abhinav Lohan.
Abhijit Chadha (72) and Honey Baisoya (72) were tied 76th, Amardip Malik (74) was Tied-97th and Udayan Mane (75) was further down in tied 104th.
Bhullar shot bogey free four-under 67 and said,"It was quite a consistent round for me today. I made 14 pars and four birdies. I didn't do anything exciting to be honest. I just managed to keep the ball in play. I hit the ball really good and I gave myself a lot of birdie opportunities out there. It was a decent round."
"This is my third time playing this golf course. I won a PGTI event here in back 2011. It's nice to be back after five years. I remember a lot of good scores on this golf course. It's a great layout. I have played the old layout before and it has improved a lot. The greens are really good and the course is in a great shape. I look forward to seeing a lot of low numbers this week."
Takeyasu, who won his maiden Asian Development Tour (ADT) victory in Malaysia last week, returned with a bogey-free round highlighted by seven birdies while Lee, who came off the back of a top-10 finish in Myanmar, was equally impressive.
One-shot behind the leader is Thitiphun Chuayprakong of Thailand while Mithun Perera of Sri Lanka, Thailand's Pavit Tangkamolprasert and Sharma shared fourth following identical 66s.
