Noida's Vikrant Chopra and Kapil Kumar of Delhi smashed the course record with scores of seven-under-65 to grab joint lead in the first round of the PGTI Players Championship at the Coimbatore Golf Club here today.
Shubhankar Sharma of Gurgaon lies in third place at five-under-67. Vikrant and Kapil broke the previous single round course record of six-under-66, which was jointly held by Abhinav Lohan and Shamim Khan.
Chopra, who was the runner-up at the last event in Coimbatore in 2012, had a forgettable start to the day as he bogeyed the first two holes. But he claimed a birdie with a 15-footer on the third and then repeated his efforts on the fifth, seventh, ninth, 10th and 11th to move to four-under for the day. He chipped-in from the bunker on the seventh.
The 33-year-old, looking for his maiden individual title, made his second chip-in of the day for eagle on the 13th. He signed off with a long birdie putt on the 18th. Vikrant was five-under for the day on the four par-5s.
The 21-year-old Kapil Kumar mixed three birdies with two bogeys on the front-nine. However, he turned it around with a six-under on the back-nine. Kapil, playing his sixth season as a professional, holed it from the bunker for eagle on the par-4 15th hole and set up tap-in birdies on five occasions with some brilliant iron-play. His longest putt of the day was a 10-footer for birdie on the 17th.
Shubhankar Sharma posted six birdies and a bogey to be placed third. The 18-year-old who finished 22nd on the Rolex Rankings in his rookie 2013 season, made three chip-putts for birdies in round one.
Abhinav Lohan of Faridabad, Chandigarh's Sujjan Singh, Meerut's Sudhir Sharma, Om Prakash Chouhan of Mhow and Delhi's Naman Dawar are in tied fourth at four-under-68.
Defending champion Rashid Khan of Delhi lies tied ninth at three-under-69.
Leading Scores: 65 - Kapil Kumar, Vikrant Chopra, 67 - Shubhankar Sharma, 68 - Abhinav Lohan, Sujjan Singh, Sudhir Sharma, Om Prakash Chouhan, Naman Dawar and 69 - Rashid Khan, Rudresh Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Arjun Singh Chaudhri, Raju Ali Mollah.
