Pukhraj Singh Gill, Manu Gandas open with 64s to share lead at Telangana Open

The young stars of the Indian golf Pukhraj Singh Gill and Gurugram’s Manu Gandas shared the first-round lead at the PGTI resumption Golconda Masters Telangana Open event.

While 24-year-old Pukhraj Singh Gill shot the best round of his professional career, 25-year-old Manu Gandas continued his hot streak, having already posted five top-10s in the season.

The leading duo was one shot ahead of Mysuru’s Yashas Chandra (65). Interestingly, Pukhraj’s younger brother Digraj Singh Gill, who had an eagle two on the 14th during his round, was tied for fourth with a score of 66 along with Noida’s Amardeep Malik.

Pukhraj Singh Gill, who turned professional in 2018, played a faultless first-round, and with the help of seven birdies, he shared the top spot.

Pukraj said, “Playing a tournament after such a long gap of six months did feel a little different. All of us professionals have been practising all this while which is not the same in terms of the mindset required for a tournament. But with a strong line-up of events on the PGTI till December, one looks forward to a lot of competitive golf in the next few months.

Manu Gandas, on the other hand, made eight birdies against a single bogey to reach the top place.

“I’ve been in good form in 2020-21 so I didn’t change much while working on my game in the last few months. I just made some minor adjustments,” said Gandas, who had a runner-up finish on the PGTI earlier this year.

PGTI Order of Merit leader Karandeep Kochhar of Chandigarh and 2019 champion Chikkarangappa of Bengaluru fired scores of 67 to be tied sixth.

Chandigarh’s Harendra Gupta, the winner of the inaugural edition in 2015, was joint 13th at 68.

Among the Hyderabad-based golfers, professional Mohd Azhar (69) and amateur Milind Soni (70) were well-placed at tied 20th and tied 28th respectively.

Olympian and defending champion Udayan Mane carded an opening round of 74 to be placed tied 83rd.