At Chandigarh Golf Club, Kochhar, Chikka lead red hot pack; cold cut looms for Jeev

CHANDIGARH: Established professionals tend to rule the roost at the Chandigarh Golf Club (CGC) and so it was with the home galleries’ hot favourite, Karandeep S Kochhar, tying for the lead with Bengaluru’s S Chikkarangappa at 7-under-par 65 following the completion of the opening round of the Rs.1.5 crore Jeev Milkha Singh Invitational by TAKE.
Chikkarangappa had bested Kochhar in a thrilling playoff in the inaugural 2018 edition of the Invitational but Kochhar had come storming back to win it two years later.The leaders go into Friday’s round hounded by a bevy of classy ball-strikers that include Veer Ahlawat (66), Aadil Bedi, Jyoti Randhawa and Sandeep Singh at 67. With the shadows of rain disappearing into the crisp autumnal air, the course played benign. Exploiting the introduction of the preferred lies local rule, 60 players shot in the red numbers, an unofficial record for an opening round at the CGC.
“The fairways were playing soft but the greens were firm and rolling well. That means, it is crucial to fire your irons into the flags guarded by tricky slopes. What will separate the winner is a hot putter, the ability to hole a bunch of putts from within 15 feet,” Chikkarangappa told the TOI.
A very tight leaderboard enhances the suspense over the winner on Sunday but another mystery got resolved prematurely. Tournament host Jeev shot a horrendous 77 to hurtle towards a consecutive fifth cut miss on his home greens at his own tournament unless he pulls a proverbial rabbit out of his hat on Friday. Jeev has not made a cut at the CGC since 2011. Defending champion Shiv Kapur, who hails from Delhi but is a favourite with the Tricity galleries, valiantly battled a debilitating inter-costal muscle pull to his rib cage that even made some breaths painful and inflicted back pains. Shiv was forced to withdraw 30 minutes before his tee time on Thursday even though he spared no effort, including intense physiotherapy sessions till the proverbial last minute, to get a fighting chance at defending the title.
Kochhar and Chikkarangappa looked solid over the final six risk-reward holes on the back-nine that determine the winner Sunday. Both fired four birdies without dropping a bogey on the last six holes. Kochhar and Chikkarangappa’s statistics for the opening round were respectively: greens in regulation, 17, 17; putts 29, 30; fairways missed 3, 4.
“The CGC has new greens for the 9th and 13th holes and I am not used to them as I haven't played my home course for six weeks. That is why I three-putted the 9th green to drop the lone bogey. I think the player with a hot putter over the final holes on Sunday will win the tournament,” Kochhar, who was recently crowned National Games champion, told TOI.