Rashid Khan and Karan Pratap Singh emerged clubhouse leaders with scores of four-under 68 on the fog-hit opening day of the INR 2 crore Kapil Dev Grant Thornton Invitational 2023 presented by DLF being played at the DLF Golf & Country Club.
On Wednesday, the start of the event was delayed by one hour and 45 minutes due to fog. Play finally got underway at 8:45 am local time. As a result, only the morning session consisting of 66 players could finish the first round on Wednesday as the 60 players from the afternoon session were still on the course when play was suspended due to fading light at 5:15 pm. Play will resume at 7 am on Thursday.
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Rashid was among the early movers on day one as he chipped-in for birdie on the second and followed that up with a long birdie conversion on the fifth. Two-time international winner Rashid dropped his only shot of the day on the sixth but came back stronger with three more birdies thereafter including two from a range of 15 to 25 feet.
Rashid said, “The weather was cold early in the morning today so the late start in the warmer conditions benefited me. Due to the delay, there may be a long gap before I play my second round so, importantly, I have to keep the momentum going when I come back to play.
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“My short-game has been good of late and it came good once again today. I had not been finding the fairways in the last few events, but today I came up with some really good tee shots and found the fairways. Hitting accurate tee shots is very important on this course.”
Karan, a winner on the PGTI this year, started from the 10th and was even-par till the third hole having made three birdies and three bogeys. Karan, playing at his home course, then landed his irons with pin-point precision to set up as many as four birdie putts within a range of five feet.
Karan said, “I got more time to practice my putting today due to the delayed start. That really helped me when I went on the course as I made a lot of good putts. I had the advantage of local knowledge as I play here daily. I landed the ball in the perfect spots in order to find the greens.”
Amardeep Malik and Kapil Kumar were tied second in the clubhouse with scores of 70.
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Among the players yet to finish round one, Rahil Gangjee and Shaurya Binu were looking good as they were four-under and three-under respectively through nine holes.
Reigning champion Varun Parikh began his week with a score of six-over 78.
