Ranga Rao steals opening day's honours

On a day when swirling winds made some of the best golfers in the country look like amateurs, Vignesh Ranga Roa played like a seasoned professional, to assume the opening day's lead at the Rs. 850,000 Cotton City Open, the second leg of Hero Honda Golf Tour, being played at the par-72, 6973-yard Coimbatore Golf Club. He returned a three-under 69, the only sub-par card of the day.

Patna golfer Mohd. Islam was the only professional to return a level-par 72, which placed him in the lead among the professionals. The trio of Calcutta's Yusuf Ali, Chandigarh's Amritinder Singh and Pune's DS Raghuvanshi were tied in second spot at one-over 73.

Tied at fifth position at a score of two-over 74 were Shiv Prakash (Kanpur), Sheeraz Kalra (Lucknow) , SSP Chowrasia (Calcutta), Mukesh Kumar (Mhow) and Harmeet Kahlon (Chandigarh).

Vignesh Ranga Rao is in Coimbatore for a holiday before he embarks on a golf sponsorship to San Deigo Golf Academy, California. In fact, the bespectacled golfer, whose main aim to move to the states is to try to qualify for the US PGA Tour, just returned after a one-and-a-half year stint including a six-month golf sponsorship at Griffith University, in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.

"The greens in Australia are much quicker than those here," said the golfer, who has been playing this course five to six times a week since his arrival a month-and-a-half ago.

"I feel I had an edge because I am used to playing on the faster greens," he added.

Vignesh's performance in his first four holes on Thursday did not give any hint of what was to follow. A par-bogey start to his round preceded a double-bogey on the fourth, where he three putted from 10 feet. Catching fire after this, Vignesh birdied the fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth, 11th and 12th eagled the 13th before unfortunate dropped shots on the 16th and 18th saw him end the day at three-under.

"I was looking at a score of five-under but I am not complaining; as for tomorrow, I plan to play my natural game and let things take their own course," concluded the 18-year old.

Mohd. Islam, was the first of three other tenth tee-starters to return a decent round of golf on Thursday. Starting his outward journey with a birdie , Islam carded a sea of pars before dropping his first shot on the 18th, the ninth hole of his round. Birdies on the first, fifth and ninth and a bogey on the third were the other highlights of his round.

"The Hero Honda Golf Tour has proved to be lucky for me," said the golfer who had a very average 2000-2001 season.

A tied ninth finish at last week's The Hindu Open in Madras followed by an opening round lead in Coimbatore might prove to be just the tonic to bring back Islam's lost form.

Last week's The Hindu Open winner Yusuf Ali recovered well from a bogey start to his round on the tenth with a birdie on the following hole. His other dropped shots occurred on the 17th, fourth and seventh while he birdied the 13th and ninth.

"The wind is oppressive .It is really difficult to hit the fairway but as professional golfers we are expected to perform under all conditions and with the course playing superbly, I just have to work to counter the wind effect."

Another tenth tee starter Amirtinder Singh, fresh from the Volvo Masters in Malaysia, drew on his experience of playing the Asian PGA Tour to return a respectable score while most others languished in the late seventies and early eighties. Amirtinder birdied the 11th , 17th, first and ninth and bogeyed the 13th, 14th, 16th , third and eighth.

"Very windy conditions," said the tall Sikh, who also felt that the course was playing really long. "Anybody who hits the fairway consistently and tallies under 30 putts stands a chance of returning a good score," he added.

Dinesh Raghuvanshi, a runner-up at the Pro-Am on Wednesday, birdied the 10th, the first hole of his round, with his other birdie coming on the 13th, fifth and ninth. Raghuvanshi bogeyed the first, fourth and seventh with a double bogey on the 12th preventing him from assuming the lead.

Ranga Rao leads amateur field : Vignesh Ranga Rao at 69 was placed eight strokes ahead of the second placed amateur Joseph Chakola returned a five-over 77.

SCORES (after 18 holes): 72_Mohd. Islam; 73_Amritinder Singh, DS Raghuvanshi, Yusuf Ali; 74_Harmeet Kahlon, Mukesh Kumar, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia, Sheeraz Kalra, Shiv Prakash; 75_Balbir Verma, Basad Ali, C Muniyappa, Ikramuddin Shah, Magan Subbarao, Mohd. Maqbool, Randhir Ghotra, Vivek Bhandari.

Amateurs: 69_Vignesh Ranga Rao; 77_Joseph Chakola