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Feroz Ali leads the field

Feroz Ali's continued his dream run in the Wills Sport Indian Golf Tour when he returned a superb five-under 67 card to lead the field on the opening day of the Rs.5.5 lakh Surya Nepal Masters at the Le Meridien Gokarna Forest Golf Resort, in Kathmandu today.

The current Order of Merit leader pumped the excitement back into the tournament after the first two days were lost due to rains and a nation-wide strike call. Feroz, the 1998 Wills Indian Open champion, opened up a two stroke lead over second placed Rohtas Singh and Harmeet Kahlon, who were three-under 69. Mukesh Kumar took the sole possession of the fourth spot at two-under 70.

Apart from Feroz, Rohtas and Mukesh, the newcomers on the Wills Sport Golf Tour stole the limelight with seven players in their rookie of second year on the Tour occupying the top 15 places.

Feroz, winner of the Color Plus Open in Chennai this year, had a sterling start from the 10th tee. He was absolutely brilliant with his woods and irons and had 16 regulations. Birdies on 11th, 12th, 15th, and 16th sandwiched a lone bogey on the 14th where his tee shot entered the water hazard. Except for the third hole, where he three-putted from the edge of the green, Feroz exploited the par-5s beautifully and made birdies on the other four. On his back nine, he added two more birdies on the 6th and 9th holes.

"I am feeling very confident after changing my swing recently during a tournament in Malaysia. I also changed my golf set to Wilson which is suiting me fine. After missing the cut in this year's Indian Open, I have practiced extra hard and it seems to be paying off," said the Calcutta-based pro after the round.

Rohtas, who had the best round in the pro-am with a five-under, followed it up with a three-under 69 today. After making a bogey on the second hole where he three-putted from 30 feet, Rohtas hit a purple patch from the ninth hole onward as he made birdies on the 9th,11th,12th, and 13th holes for his 69.

"I will take a 69 any day. I missed a three-footer birdie putt on the seventh and that rankles me a bit," he said later.

Harmeet had to wait almost an hour before submitting his three-under 69 card. On the par-4 sixth hole, the ball moved a little before he could address it on a downhill lie in the rough. He ended with a bogey there, which was his only blemish of the day. His birdies came on the 4th,11th,12th and 15th holes.

"I played pretty solid. I have no complaints," said the Arjuna award winner who turned pro this year.

Mukesh Kumar made an eagle on par-3 third, but promptly levelled the advantage with a double bogey on the fourth. Birdies on 12th and 16th made up his final tally.

The best Nepalese pro was Ramesh Nagarkoti, winner of Surya Western Open, a local Nepalese tournament, who returned a one-under 71 card to be joint fifth with Yusuf Ali.

SCORES (after 18 holes):

67_Feroz Ali; 69_Rohtas Singh, Harmeet Kahlon; 70_Mukesh Kumar; 71_Ramesh Nagarkoti (Nep), Yusuf Ali; 72_Amit Dubey, Mohd. Maqbool; 73_Digvijay Singh, Gursimran Sethi, Pashupati Sharma (Nep), Amritinder Singh, Ajay Gupta, Indrajit Bhalotia; 74_Deepak Acharya, Zai Kipgen, Tarun Sardesai, Vikramjit Singh.

Amateurs:
75_Rajan Thapa; 79_Yelambar Adhikari; 83_Umesh Nagarkoti, B D Ryu.