Tata Steel Tour C'ship: Chikkarangappa takes first round honours with blistering 62

Amardeep Malik posted an impressive nine-under-63 to be placed second on day one of the Rs 1.5 crore PGTI event being played at the Beldih and Golmuri golf courses.Manu Gandas, Kshitij Naveed Kaul, Arjun Prasad and Harendra Gupta were all in tied third place having shot identical scores of 64.

Chikkarangappa S shot a blistering 10-under-62 to take the first round lead at the Tata Steel Tour Championship golf tournament, here on Thursday. Amardeep Malik posted an impressive nine-under-63 to be placed second on day one of the Rs 1.5 crore PGTI event being played at the Beldih and Golmuri golf courses.

Manu Gandas, Kshitij Naveed Kaul, Arjun Prasad and Harendra Gupta were all in tied third place having shot identical scores of 64. Pre-tournament favourite Anirban Lahiri fired a 65 to occupy tied seventh spot along with Karandeep Kochhar (PGTI Order of Merit leader) and Yuvraj Singh Sandhu.

One half of the field played their 18 holes at Beldih Golf Club while the other half played at Golmuri. Both halves will switch venues in round two. Chikkarangappa, who began his week at Golmuri, claimed an eagle, nine birdies and a bogey.

The 27-year-old reaped the benefits of using a new putter early on in his round as he sank birdie putts from a range of 10 to 15 feet on the first, fifth, sixth and seventh. After landing it within three feet on the ninth and 10th, he added two more birdies to his card. The two-time winner on the Asian Development Tour (ADT) was relentless thereafter as he picked up birdie-eagle-birdie on the 11th, 12th and 13th to move to an astonishing 10-under for the day.

On the 12th, he recovered well from the rough with a terrific nine-iron second shot before converting an 18-footer for eagle. The 13th saw him make another 15-feet conversion. ''I changed my putter this week as I was struggling to hole putts in previous events even though I was stroking it well on the greens. The new putter seems to be working for me as I holed a lot of long putts today,'' Chikkarangappa said.

''I've been in contention in all events since the tour resumed in November this year. However, I still need to convert my good starts at events into better finishes. Hopefully, with my driving, wedge-play and putting now shaping up well, I can have a good result this week,'' he added. Amardeep, who also played at Golmuri, came up with a flawless round. He was in contention in the last event in Chandigarh, lying one off the lead after round three before he finished tied 16th.

He made four consecutive birdies on the front-nine and back-nine. Amardeep capitalised on all four par-5s – second, third, 11th and 12th – by picking up birdies there. He also drove the green on the par-4s fourth and 13th to set up birdies. Among other prominent names, SSP Chawrasia, a three-time winner here and local amateur Navtez Singh were both tied 13th having carded scores of 67. Jyoti Randhawa and Shiv Kapur were both tied 18th with scores of 68 while Gaganjeet Bhullar and Rahil Gangjee were a further shot back in tied 23rd place.

Defending champion Udayan Mane shot a 71 to be tied 52nd while Rashid Khan, the highest-ranked Indian in the world, posted a 72 to be tied 60th..