KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 13

Top Nepali pro Sukra Bahadur Rai carded two-under 70 to share the 25th position after the first round of the Jeev Milkha Singh Invitational under the Professional Golf Tour of India at the Chandigarh Golf Club today.

Rai, who started the day from the 10th tee, made a flying start and was five-under after seven holes but he could not maintain the momentum and took the turn at two-under 34 before playing an even-par 36 on his back nine. He is in the pack of 23 golfers tied for 25th place at 70, five strokes off the pace.

The Dharan-based golfer carded two straight birdies to make a perfect start in the INR 10.5 million event and shot three consecutive birdies from the 14th to go five-under. But Rai dropped three shots on the next two par-four holes including a double bogey on the 18th. He then saved pars on the first four holes to drop down to one-under but he carded his sixth birdie of the day on the fifth hole to earn a share of 25th position.

Rai said the wayward tee shots on three holes cost him a place in top five.

'Overall, the round was satisfactory but I missed a chance to finish strong due to bad tee shots on a couple of holes,' he said. 'I was able to produce the under-par card because of good chipping and putting,' added Rai, who made his first PGTI top 10 finish in the previous event in Haryana.

Indian pros Karandeep Kochan and S Chikkarangappa shared the lead at seven-under 65, while Veer Ahlawat was one stroke back at third.

Three other India pros, Sandeep Singh, Jyoti Randhawa and Aadil Bedi were tied for fourth at five-under 67, while Sri Lankan Mithun Perera was tied for seventh at 68 along with five Indians - Khalin N Joshi, Anil Bajrang Mane, Abhijit Singh Chadha, Chandrajeet Yadav and Harendra Gupta.

Twelve pros are tied for 13th place at three-under 69. Tournament host Jeev Milkha Singh began the event with a five-over 77 to earn a share of 114th place, while defending champion Shiv Kapur pulled out because of back injury.

A version of this article appears in the print on October 14, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.