Roop Singh hits a purple patch

KARNAL: Chandigarh's Roop Singh, Balwinder Singh Mattu of Jalandhar, Dinesh Raghuvanshi of Pune and Lucknow golfer Jumman share the lead after round one of the PGTI Feeder Tour event being played at the Madhuban Meadows Golf Course in Karnal. The four golfers shot identical scores of five under 64 at the par-69 course on Wednesday.
Pappan, Aas Mohammad, Dinesh Kumar and Ramesh Kumar are placed in tied fifth, one stroke behind the joint leaders.
Balwinder Singh Mattu, who hails from the Punjab Armoured Police Golf Course in Jalandhar, made six birdies against a bogey in his opening round. Mattu was on song from the very outset. He sank a 15 feet putt for birdie on the second and followed that up by landing his shots within three feet for birdies on the fourth and ninth. Balwinder missed a chip-in for eagle by a whisker on the 14th.
His birdie on the par-four 15th came as a result of his driving the green. Mattu said, 'My hitting was very accurate and I putted well too. This is a great start for me and I have to now focus on keeping the intensity going over the next two days.
The only disappointments today were missing out on a five feet eagle putt on the 11th and the three-putt for bogey on the 13th.'Among the other joint leaders, Dinesh Raghuvanshi made an eagle, four birdies and a bogey while Jumman had seven birdies and two bogeys. Jumman fired five birdies on the trot from the ninth through the 13th. Roop Singh, also a co-leader, had six birdies against a lone bogey in his opening round.
As this is the seventh and final event of the PGTI Feeder Tour's 2011 season, the winner of the PGTI Feeder Tour Order of Merit champion for 2011 will be decided at the end of this event. The Order of Merit champion will book a berth for himself on the Aircel PGTI (main tour) for 2012. The final event of the Professional Golf Tour of India's (PGTI) Feeder Tour for 2011 took off at the Madhuban Meadows Golf Course. It will continue till September 2.
This tournament has a total prize purse of Rs 6 lakh. As many as 82 players will be play over three rounds of 18 holes each with the cut being applied after 36 holes.
The PGTI Feeder Tour Order of Merit champion for 2011 will be decided at the end of this event. Rajesh Kumar Rawat of Lucknow currently leads the Order of Merit with earnings of Rs. 211,500.
Arjun Singh Chaudhri of Noida is second with earnings of Rs 1,94,50 while Delhi golfer Karan Vasudeva is in third place with earnings of Rs 1,84,320.