Jyoti leads the way

Randhawa, playing on his home course, scorches the DGC greens with a flawless seven-under card to take a two-stroke lead after the opening round of the Indian Masters

NEW DELHI: Jyoti Randhawa knows the Delhi Golf Club better than anyone else. He has been playing here since he was a youngster. He has tamed the treacherous course many times in his illustrious career and has etched some superb victories, three of them in Asian Tour events.

On Thursday, he recalled all his experience to set a blazing pace, shooting a blemish-free card of 7-under 65 which included two eagles in the last five holes, to lead by two strokes in the opening round of the US$2.5m Emaar-MGF Indian Masters, even as the ‘ghosts’ of DGC pounced on top-ranked Ernie Els, who closed with a 75 to be placed tied-78th after the first round. “Delhi Golf Club brings out the best in me. I am under pressure whenever I play this course. I did take some risks and that paid off well,” said Randhawa, who won back-to-back Indian Open titles in 2006 and 2007 at this venue.

Englishman Richard Finch and Irish pro Damien McGrane were tied for second place with 5-under 67 while local favourite Shiv Kapur, Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn and Spaniard Jose Manuel Lara were tied for fourth with a four-under 68. Bangalore lad C Muniyappa, meanwhile, had his share of limelight when he aced the par-3 12th and made three more birdies to not only resurrect his round but also be placed seventh along with Mark O’Meara, Chinnarat Phadungsil and Alvaro Garcia.

Randhawa, who was critical of the course on the eve of the tournament, found it to his liking. Keeping his good form intact, the Delhi pro saved his first stroke on the par-4 third and repeated the feat on the sixth to make a steady start to his front nine. “I think of my past performance here and it helps a lot. I remembered what I did to come out with a good performance in the past. That’s what I did today and it worked very well,” said the top pro.It was a different Randhawa on the return journey as he mixed caution with aggression with the latter trait showing more in his game. However, as long as the results were positive it did not matter. After a birdie on the par-3 12th, Randhawa, who became the first Indian to win the Asian Tour Order of Merit way back in 2002, showed his class with an eagle on the par-5 14th, which incidentally had been converted into a par-4 until the start of the tournament.

With a huge drive on the 516-yard hole, Randhawa just needed a 6-iron to reach the green in two. “I wanted to start at the right of the hole and bring it back in and when I actually hit the shot it didn’t draw. But I was lucky the slope helped the ball roll near the pin,” he explained his eagle putt.

He did charge with the same aggression on the remaining holes but his putter ditched him on the 15th, 16th and 17th where he missed birdies from under eight feet. He made amends on the finishing hole when he charged on the par-5 545-yard 18th where a new fairway bunker has been added to arrest the drives.  “It becomes a very narrow hole because you really can’t hit your driver and if you mishit to the right, there is every possibility of going into the bushes and hence I thought it better to lay up,” explained Randhawa, who had ended 87th in the world last season.

He then unleashed a perfect 3-wood into the 18th green and sank the ensuing 16-footer eagle putt to emerge as the leader. “You can’t shoot a 7-under and be happy about it and sit on it because it’s the European Tour and people shoot really low numbers here.”

“Hence I had to be aggressive as I feel the more the risk the more low one can go. The pressure will be there for the next few days as it is your home course and you are playing against the best in the world,” he added.