Panchkula, March 4 (IANS) Ranjit Singh of Chandigarh produced a seven under-65 to grab the lead in round one of the Aircel-PGTI Players Championship presented by Panchkula Golf Club here Thursday while Dinesh Raghuvanshi of Pune fired a four under-68 to be placed second.
Ranjit did not get off to an ideal start as he missed some easy birdie putts on the 10th and 11th and then played a poor chip shot for bogey on the 12th. He then turned the tide with three back-to-back birdies on the 14th, 15th and 16th. On the 16th, he landed his sand wedge approach shot from 90 yards to within two feet of the hole.

Ranjit went on to pick up more birdies on the 18th, fifth and sixth thanks to some good chipping and putting. He signed off his round making birdie-birdie on the eighth and ninth. The 35-year-old came up with a phenomenal six iron second shot to pocket his final birdie of the day on the ninth.

Ranjit said: “My driving was good and I made all fairways today. The three successive birdies from the 14th through the 16th put me on the right track for the rest of the round. The 25 feet putt for birdie on the sixth also gave me loads of confidence. However, my best shot of the day came on the ninth where my second shot (six iron) from 180 yards landed two feet from the pin and led to a birdie.

“I play a lot on this course and therefore I can say that I enjoy the advantage of local knowledge this week. I made some changes to my posture recently and I think that has contributed to my good score today. Even though I had an outstanding opening round, I think my chipping still needs some improvement.”

Raghuvanshi, who had seven birdies against three bogeys, said: “I hit it very close on all the par five holes and therefore made birdies on all of them. I also did not miss out on any putt barring two putts on the first and third.”

Harmeet Kahlon, another Chandigarh-based professional, was in third place as he returned a three under 69 that featured five birdies and two bogeys.

Mohd. Sanju, Raju Singh, Raju Ali Mollah, Gaurav Pratap Singh, Om Prakash Chouhan and Mohd. Siddikur Rahman were in joint fourth position with identical scores of two under 70.

Mukesh Kumar shot three over 75 to grab a share of 37th place while Gaurav Ghei ended the day in tied 49th with a score of four over 76.