Bangladeshi with changed name finds fortunes on Indian greens

CHANDIGARH: An exceptionally tall Indian golfer stood between Bangladeshi domination of the leaderboard at the Rs 50 lakh Tata Steel-PGTI Players' Championship presented by American Express and hosted by Haryana government / Panchkula Golf Club (PGC) on Tuesday.
Jamal Hossain shot a 7-under-par 65 to lead on a day that saw as many as 49 professionals shoot in the red numbers that augurs well for the cut going low on Wednesday evening.Hossain's countryman Badal Hossain shot a 65 to lie third while the 6 feet 7 inches tall Harshjeet Singh Sethie from Delhi occupied a tight, sandwiched spot between the two Bangladeshis, having nailed a fine 66 on the scoring board.
Having recently changed and shortened his name from the rather long and winding, Md Zamal Hossain Mollah, to just Jamal Hossain, the leader's name change coincided with a change of his fortunes as he has been driving the ball longer and straighter during the 2022 golfing season. Jamal, who lies 5th on the Tata Steel-PGTI Rankings for the 2022 season, nearly won the last time he played in the Tricity. Yuvraj S. Sandhu just about bested Jamal at the Chandigarh Golf Club in April 2022. On his part, Sandhu was lying tied-4th at the PGC on Tuesday with a score of 68 and three shots off the leader. Keeping creditable pace with the successful pro-golfer Sandhu was Panchkula's amateur golfer, Brijesh Kumar, who also shot a 68. The undulating PGC layout sporting large US-type greens is recovering from a spot of exceptional and heavy end-September rains. “I had two chip-ins today from off the greens to boost my scoring momentum. I have been driving the ball 280-285 yards off the tees and accurately. The fairways at PGC were soft and receptive. Apart from 4 to 5 greens, which were playing very well, there was some difficulty in keeping the ball on line on the other greens due to some indents on the putting surface. I had changed my name three months back to make it consistent with the name that I have entered in my property records in Bangladesh,” Jamal told TOI.
International winner Rashid Khan, who returned just in time from Taiwan where he lost in a nail-biting play-off finish on the Asian Tour, struck a first round of 69 to lie tied 11th.
Tata Steel-PGTI Order of Merit leader and Chandigarh lad Ajeetesh Sandhu was tied 23rd at 70, Olympian Udayan Mane was tied 33rd at 71 while defending champion S. Chikkarangappa was tied 50th at 72. The pros will strive to build momentum at the PGC to go in for next week's very prestigious Rs 1.5 crore Jeev Milkha Invitational by TAKE, reckoned as the “Indian Major” on the domestic tour.