Nicolas Colsaerts recovered from a slow start to share the lead alongside Marcus Armitage and Marcus Kinhult after the first round of the Hero Indian Open.
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Colsaerts, a three-time DP World Tour winner, set the target early in the day after signing for a round of 68 despite two bogeys in his opening three holes, before Swede Kinhult and Englishman Armitage joined him at the top of the leaderboard on four under at DLF Golf and Country Club.
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The 2023 European Ryder Cup Vice-Captain regained his DP World Tour card for 2025 after finishing second at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship towards the end of last season and he is hoping to kick-start his campaign with a positive result in India this week.
The 42-year-old recorded his first birdie of the day at the fourth and followed that up with another at the sixth. A dropped shot at the seventh followed by back-to-back gains at the eighth and ninth saw him make the turn at one under.
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Further birdies arrived at the tenth, 14th and the par five 15th as the Belgian navigated the back nine without dropping a shot to set the target at DLF Golf and Country Club, one of the toughest layouts on the DP World Tour.
Kinhult made an impressive start to his first round with birdies at the first, second and fourth. He made a bogey five at the seventh before bouncing back immediately with a gain at the par five eighth to turn at three under par.
The 2019 Betfred British Masters winner kept his scorecard clean on the way in, which included a birdie at the 15th to grab a share of the lead in New Delhi.
Armitage has made a strong start to the 2025 Race to Dubai, including a fifth place finish at last week’s Porsche Singapore Classic and he was pleased to keep that positive momentum going on day one of the Hero Indian Open – the second of four events on the Asian Swing.
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Ajeetesh Sandhu (69), who also played in the morning, and Veer Ahlawat (70), who was tied second last year, were the best Indians in Tied-4th place and Tied-10th. There were five other Indians at Tied-30th.
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Two-time Hero Indian Open winner SSP Chawrasia, Gaganjeet Bhullar, Shiv Kapur, Om Prakash Chouhan and Rayhan Thomas shot 72 each on a day when even par was a good score, to be at the Tied-30 spot.
 and Veer Ahlawat (70), who was tied second last year, were the best Indians in T4 on Day 1 of the Hero Indian Open){kind=link}