Singapore: Himmat Rai emerged as the best Indian golfer on Thursday after he finished tied 12th at the ISPS Handa Singapore Classic.
With a two-under 68 - three shots behind the leader Yosuke Tsukada of Japan, Rai performed the best amongst the 13 other Indian golfers who teed up on the day.
Rai, who has time and again sparkled and shown enough talent to win on the Asian Tour, is still looking for his first win.
Meanwhile, the next best Indian was Mandeo Pathania (69) with one-under 69 was tied 21st place, while all others went over par.
Gaurav Ghei, who at one stage was three-under, finished one-over 71 as did Chiragh Kumar, Anirban Lahiri, Sujjan Singh and Ashok Kumar - all at tied 53rd.
Abhishek Jha, Vinod Kumar and Feroz Ali all shot 72 each and were tied 75th, while Vikrant Chopra and Manav Jaini registered 74 and Digvijay Singh carded 76.
Six players will have to return at 8 a.m. local time on Friday to finish their first round after lightning forced a 75-minute suspension in the afternoon.
Tsukada, who took the lead with a five-under par 65, credited his positive state of mind for his achievement on Thursday.
The 26-year-old Japanese mixed seven birdies against two bogeys to take a single shot lead over Malaysia's Danny Chia, countryman Daisuke Kataoka and Thai veteran Thaworn Wiratchant, who returned with matching 66s for equal second place at Orchid Country Club.
Chinese Taipei's Wang Ter-chang rolled back the years with a 67 to take a share of fifth place with six other players, including Myanmar's Nay Bala Win Myint and South Africa's Jbe Kruger at the USD 300,000 full field event that is also focusing on relief and rebuilding efforts in Japan following the tsunami and earthquake tragedies earlier this year.
Tsukada is featuring in only his second Asian Tour event.
Comments
0 comment