SSP Chawrasia shoots flawless 63 to grab first-round lead at Tour Championship

The veteran SSP Chawrasia started his Tour Championship journey with a solid 9-under 63 to grab the lead at the PGTI’s season-ending event.

Chawrasia made no mistakes on the first day and shot a perfect round to take a four-stroke lead at the Rs. 1.5 crore prize money competition.

India’s International star Shubhankar Sharma also made his presence felt at the challenging situations at Jamshedpur as he shot magnificent 5-under 67 to sit along defending champion Gaganjeet Bhullar at the tied-second spot.        

The duo of two-time European Tour winner Shubhankar Sharma and nine-time Asian Tour winner Gaganjeet Bhullar made seven birdies and two bogeys each on day one for impressive starts to the week.

The dynamic Shubhankar was one-under through 10 holes before he had a flurry of birdies on the 11th, 12th, 16th and 18th. While, the pre-tournament favourite Gaganjeet Bhullar followed the same path as his European Tour colleague, going 1-under through the front nine holes and four birdies on the back nine to finish the day at 5-under.

Mukesh Kumar, three-time winner, and Om Prakash Chouhan, two-time winner, both from Mhow, Madhya Pradesh, as well as Olympian and 2019 winner Udayan Mane, and Gurugram's Veer Ahlawat, who is currently eighth in the PGTI Order of Merit, shared the tied fourth spot.

PGTI Order of Merit leader Karandeep Kochhar of Chandigarh was tied 28th at a score of 71 along with eight-time Asian Tour champion Jyoti Randhawa and Jamshedpur-based Karan Taunk.

Bangalore’s Chikkarangappa, who is currently sitting at second place in the PGTI Order of Merit, shot a 72 to be tied 37th.