Tapendra Ghai got ahead of the fancied players when he took the lead, although by a solitary stroke at the end of the opening round of the Tata Steel Southern India Junior Golf Championship at the testing par-72 KGA course here today.
Tapendra shot a level par 72 to be ahead of the second placed trio of Viraj Madappa, Manu Gandas and Prakhar Asawa.
Piyush Sangwan was fifth at 74 while the quartet of Jairaj Singh Sandhu, Feroz Singh Garewal, Varun Parikh and Arjun Malik were all tied for the sixth place at 75.
Jaiveer Singh emerged as the leader in Category B with a 77 while K Sidharth and Arjun Prasad shared the second spot at 78. Arjun Puri was lying fourth at 80 while Karandeep Kochar was fifth just a stroke behind.
Tapendra made a good start with a series of pars while saving a stroke on the par-3 fourth. However a bogey on the par-4 seventh, the toughest hole on the course nullified the effort as he finished his front nine with a par.
Tapendra has a similar start on his back nine where he saved pars while making a birdie on the par-4 14th. A bogey on the finishing hole was unfortunately a sad end to his round.
Top scores after 18 holes:
Category A: 72 Tapendra Ghai; 73 Viraj Madappa, Manu Gandas, Prakhar Asawa; 74 Piyush Sangwan; 75 Jairaj Singh Sandhu, Feroz Singh Garewal, Varun Parikh, Arjun Malik; 77 Yuvraj Sandhu, Akash Srinivasan
Category B: 77 Jaiveer Singh; 78 K Sidharth, Arjun Prasad; 80 Arjun Puri; 81 Karandeep Kochar; 82 Ranveer Grewal; Saarthak Chhibber, Tanvir Kahlon; 83 Kartik Sharma; 84 Karan Pratap Singh, Kunal Naidu.
