Kolkata: Defending champion Gurbani Singh set the Tollygunge course on fire with a record-breaking six-under 64 at the par-70 course on the first day of the Usha West Bengal Ladies Open Amateur Golf Championship on Wednesday. Gurbani, who won the Usha Southern India Ladies Open earlier in the year was a whopping nine shot clear of second place Aditi Ashok (73) after the first round.

Ankita Kedalya and Astha Madan shot 74 each to be tied third, while Sehar Atwal and Millie Saroha, the Usha Northern Indian champion, carded 75 each in tied fifth place.

So dominant was Gurbani that she had an incredible eight birdies, four on either side of the turn and her two bogeys came on 12th and 14th holes. Her birdies came on second, fourth, fifth and seventh and at the turn she was four-under. She then birdied 13th, 15th, 16th and 18th and in between dropped two bogeys also for an amazing 64.

Gurbani’s score has been the lowest this season and for quite some on the women’s circuit and barring a big reversal of form she should run away an easy winner, even though there are two more rounds to go.

Aditi Ashok, who has been playing without a break for a long period, carded 73 with just one birdie on the 18th and four bogeys.

In terms of the Category positions, Gurbani (64) was ten clear of Astha Madan in Category A, while in category B, Aditi led Ankita by one.

In Category C Arshia Mahant carded 81 and led Riya Ahuja (87) by six shots, while in Category D, Vasundhara Tihara (87) held a two-shot lead over Tanishka Kumar (89).