Chowrasia takes opening day's honours

Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia blasted a five-under 66 to take a one-stroke lead after the opening round of the Rs 600,000 HT Pro Golf 2001 - Lucknow Open, being played at the par-71, 6,461-yard Lucknow Golf Course, on Thursday.

The Hindustan Times-sponsored tournament is the eighth-leg of the Hero Honda Golf Tour’s 2001-02 season.

One stroke behind Chowrasia, at four-under 67 and second place, is the new star of Indian Golf, Delhi’s Zai Kipgen.

Squatting threateningly at tied-third position is the trio of Mhow’s Mukesh Kumar, Calcutta’s Rahil Gangjee and local lad Jumman, at three-under 68 apiece.

Local favourite Vijay Kumar didn’t do too badly to return a two-under 69 as did Calcutta's Rafiq Ali. The two are placed tied-sixth.

Chowrasia is probably one of the youngest stars on the Hero Honda Golf Tour. This 21-year old golfer first hit the headlines when he finished tied-second at the prestigious Indian Open in 1999. Among his more recent achievements is a win at the Sir Padampat Singhania Open early this year. Nick-named ‘Chip-putt Chowrasia’ for his tremendous short game, the wiry golfer complimented his skills around the green with some scintillating driving on Wednesday.

Surprisingly his day’s round was not all hunky-dory. The Calcuttan's first eventful holes proved to be the 5th and 6th, where he dropped one shot each.

Two-over with 12-holes left to play, Chowraswia caught fire to birdie the 7th and 9th on his front-nine and a string of birdies from the 11th to the 16th broken only by a par on the 15th.

"I have been playing well throughout the season," said the golfer, whose best finish this year has been a tied-third finish at the Hyundai-MGC Open in Madras.

"This golf course has improved by leaps and bounds from as recently as last year. The greens are even paced and that helps me play my natural game," he said.

Known as the most media savvy golfer on the circuit, Zai Kipgen was the center of all attention at the Pro-Am prize presentation ball organised by the sponsors, Hindustan Times on Tuesday. The popular music band ‘The Aryans’ took an instant liking to the Delhiite, persuading him to share the stage with them for an entire song.

Today, the limelight was once again trained on Zai, though the stage was entirely different. "Yesterday’s party relaxed me completely. It was fun. This probably helped me stay calm throughout my round, despite the fact that I started with a bogey," he said.

Zai’s opening hole ended in a missed three-feet par-putt. The 22-year old erred just once more, when he found the green-side bunker on the 8th for his second bogey. Thereafter, he was a changed man. Birdie finishes to his front and back nine sandwiched birdies on the 11th, 12th, 14th and 16th.

"I sank amazing 30 feet putts on the 9th and 18th while on the 11th, my putt couldn’t have been less than 20 feet long," he said.

“After winning the Hyudai-MGC Open (Chennai), I have learnt to take things in my stride. I worry less during the round and start afresh on each hole. This really helps,” said the ever-smiling golfer.

Mukesh Kumar leads the Order of Merit by a cool Rs 200,000. There are no immediate worries for him and this reflected in his approach which saw him set up a good platform from where to launch an attack in the remaining three rounds.

"I won this tournament two years ago. I was inexperienced then. Today, I am a different player and from the way I played today, I feel I have a good chance of registering my third win of the season," said the 33-year old, who carded back-to-back wins at the TNGF Open, Madras, and the Sher-E-Kashmir Open, in Srinagar, earlier this season.

Nath leads amateurs: Local golfer Arindam Nath led the amateur field at three-over 74. Rishi Khanna was placed second at 75.

Scores (after 18 holes): 66_Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia; 67_Zai Kipgen; 68_Mukesh Kumar, Rahil Gangjee, Jumman; 69_Vijay Kumar, Rafiq Ali; 70_ Bhoop Singh, Binod Pandey, Dinesh Kumar, GS Sethi, Shamim Khan; 71_Mohd. Islam, Mohd. Maqbool, Rohtas Singh, Sanjay Kumar, Sheeraz Kalra, Shiv Prakash, Vishal Singh.

Amateurs: 74_Arindam Nath; 75_Rishi Khanna.