Mohd Azhar shot a top-notch seven-under 64 on day one to emerge the leader by one shot at The Poona Club Open, an INR 1 crore event, being played at the Poona Club Golf Course in Pune.
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PGTI Order of Merit leader Yuvraj Sandhu fired a six-under 65 to be placed second. Veer Ahlawat (66), the 2024 PGTI Ranking champion, was a further shot behind in third position.
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The quintet of Akshay Damale, Aaron Rockey, Aditya Bhandarkar, Adityaa Garg and amateur Arkin Patel were the highest-placed among the Pune-based players as they returned scores of 71 to occupy tied 29th place.
Azhar, who has been in decent form in recent times with four top-10s to his name in his last six starts, began his week with a birdie-bogey on the first two holes. However, he soon began to stamp his authority by adding three more birdies on the front-nine including a 35-feet conversion on the third.
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Azhar, currently ranked 23rd in the PGTI Order of Merit, picked up four more birdies on the back-nine including a tap-in and an 18-feet conversion.
Azhar said, “I hit it close to the flags all day. Here at the Poona Club Golf Course, there is a premium on hitting fairways and I hit a lot of fairways today. On the back-nine, my chipping and putting was outstanding because I did not hit any greens from hole 14 onwards and just made a lot of quality chip-putts.
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“This season has been much better than the last one for me and I’m looking to make big strides in the remaining tournaments this year.”
Yuvraj produced eight birdies and two bogeys to be placed second while Veer came up with six birdies and a bogey to end the day in third position.
